Call of the Apocalypse
by Pair of Britches
Summary: Alice and Vivian are two girls living on the wrong side of the law but what happens when they steal from the wrong person? We know it's crack so you don't need to flame. It's a big ol' nerd party and reviews are appreciated. Rated M for swearing
1. Chapter 1

**Name: **Alice Winters (Ali)

**Age: **26

**Appearance: **Ali has long straight black hair and pale skin. With her pale blue eyes and tall willowy figure she's the epitome of "southern" beauty

**Personality: **Despite her sweet features Ali has a mean temper and a wicked streak; she's stubborn, hot headed, lies through her teeth to get her way, Ali can be brash and abrasive and always speaks her mind no matter who she offends

**Other: **Born and raised in Charlotte South Carolina, Ali was supposed to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a debutante.

From an early age Ali was sent to etiquette classes, dance classes and all the things her mother had studied when she became a debutante. Ali however did _not_ wish to follow in her mother's footsteps and when she was sixteen, ran away from home.

Ali lived on her own charming her way across the country by using her looks and some "southern charm", when charm wasn't enough to get her what she needed Ali wasn't afraid to use force having been taught how to shoot and hunt when she was young by her father who wanted to instil Ali with some 'useful' knowledge before her head became stuffed with debutante etiquette.

Ali found that she could get what she wanted better by using force and so she stared a small hitman business where for the right price she'd do anything. When she was twenty two she met Vivian who was supposed to be her next target but the two decided they worked better as a team and so Ali went back to her client to tell him she'd completed the job and then split the money with Vivian and disappeared before the client could figure out they'd ripped him off.

The two currently live in Las Vegas where Vivian is able to make money by gambling and Ali makes money by stealing from wealthy men who come to Vegas for the weekend. She charms them then slips them a sedative and steals money and valuables from their wallets and jackets and pawns or sells the valuables knowing these men won't report them missing because they weren't supposed to be in Vegas in the first place.

* * *

**Name: **Vivian Rose (old name Maxwell)

**Age: **24

**Appearance: **Short black curly hair, green eyes. 5"5 slim.

**Personality: **Vivianis a master with words. Overly confident and arrogant (especially when gambling) using coercion and mind games to swindle money and whatever she wants out of anyway, very harsh and outspoken to everyone. No pets but likes strays.

**Other: **Born in London, England. Both her parents ran an illegal drug/smuggling business; Vivian was used to deliver things to certain clients.

At the age of 10 she found out there was going to be a raid on their house, she packed few non-traceable things and ran away to an orphanage.

She was then adopted and raised in a loving environment but started to steal, gamble and was involved in several gangs. Acting as the smart daughter of the family, studied psychology, I.T and sciences in college and at 16 started to frequent at local gambling bars, then started to dabble in guns.

Vivian has a reputation as a very successful and expensive hitman and an extortionist, mostly targeting corrupt politicians or high ranking officials, using coercion, confidence and mind tricks to flush them out of whatever she wants usually money and information which then gets sold to the highest bidder.

She became very well known through the years as a swindler and extortionist. The gang she had worked with sent a hitman after her when she stole over half a million from them. The hitman was older than she was but they came to an agreement to work together, splitting Alice's pay for the job to rip the gang off one last time.

Vivian prefers easy to move in clothes (not static) when she's working on building new electronic things. Loose fitting clothes in casinos and such to hide things under i.e. dresses and long skirts.

The two currently live in Las Vegas where Vivian is able to make money by gambling and Izzy makes money by stealing from wealthy men who come to Vegas for the weekend. She charms them then slips them a sedative and steals money and valuables from their wallets and jackets and pawns or sells the valuables knowing these men won't report them missing because they weren't supposed to be in Vegas in the first place.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1:**

Las Vegas, Nevada, the entertainment capital of the world. The city that never sleeps. A city that thrives on energy: electric energy. A city like this is a prime location and testing ground for a Mr Tony Stark sole inventor and entrepreneur of Stark industries clean energy source.

In typical Stark fashion, he had arrived in his Ironman suit and made his speech on a grand stage outside of the Stratosphere Tower.

Two figures watching from the edge of the crowd "You're going after the flashiest man in the US ... I smell trouble." Tall and willowy the first woman glanced at her doll like friend,

"It's only trouble when we get caught remember?" the other party sighed "let's go" the pair disappeared into the casino on the first level of the Stratosphere tower.

Busier than usual thanks to the arrival of Mr Stark: this was going to make _business_ a lot easier. The two ladies found one of the more popular tables which was located right in the centre of the floor, easy to find and easy to gain a lot of attention: perfect for the man than loved to flaunt everything. They played a few games against some other customers, until their target sauntered over to their table. He took particular interest in the taller girl, wrapping his arm around her slender waist.

"Might I join you my dear?" he asked with a suave smirk, her friend nodded pretending to blush when he kissed her hand "Tony Stark" he stated obviously,

"Pleasure. Charlotte Faciller. But you can call me Lotte" she smiled sweetly giving Stark her false name, the woman's real name was Alice but for this particular operation a false name suited her purposes

"So I guess you'll be bringing me a lotta luck tonight?" Tony joked badly.

Alice friend grimaced openly "That was a terrible pun. Mr Stark."

They played a few rounds allowing the billionaire to win the majority "Ahh~ I'm out" the shorter woman sighed pushing her cards away, taking a slight step away from the table "Change?" she swapped places with the person stood rather close behind her nodding briefly to 'Alice'.

Being a head or two shorter than most of the men here was an advantage at the best of times, weaving in and out was much easier. She _accidently_ knocked into Tony and quickly disappearing into the sea of people.

She didn't leave the building but entered the 'ladies room' when inside a free stall she produced a wallet and a tablet from her clutch purse, '_let's have a look' _running several different hacking programs it didn't take her long to figure out the code she needed transferring a high amount of money into an account but nothing to high it would look too suspicious.

Taking leave of the bathroom, she weaved back into the sea of people around Mr stark dropping the wallet by his feet, elbowing 'Alice' in the back on her way past. This time she did leave the casino and wondered how long it would take for the billionaire to notice he 'dropped' his wallet. She took this opportunity to loiter and made idle chitchat with people who were taking a cigarette break outside just so she didn't look too suspicious.

"There's an awful lot of guards tonight" noticing the gathering of men in black probably carrying guns under their jackets.

"Oh yes, have to protect the lovely Mr Stark now," one older woman chuckled, swooning just at thought of the younger man,

"He made quite the speech"

"I think it's a good idea. A city this big using clean energy would benefit the environment" the woman's partner puffed on a cigar,

"Well I don't care! Put Fury on!"

'_Speak of the devil and he shall appear'_ she mused as Tony Stark stormed out of the tower shouting down his phone, Alice was following him closely.

"Have fun?" she asked turning on her heels to walk away from the establishment,

"Oh tons of fun being a human trophy" Alice noticed her friend was in an awful hurry to leave the area "Whoa slow down Viv, where's the fire?"

"That rich bastard came with a horde of friggen' armed guards and after witnessing how pissed off he just got ... I don't think that's all of them"

"Why are you worried though? It's not like they can track us" Alice said calmly

"I wouldn't like to test that theory" she looked around made sure no-one was following them before she took a spot on a cold wooden bench in Paradise park, "That guy could have the technology to do so, besides you he could track that's what CCTV cameras are for." Viv said working furiously on her tablet

Alice sat down next to her resting her aching feet "And he can't track you why?"

"I make sure my face is never seen head on by those cameras I know the locations of all the cameras around the casino area and if they did manage to find my 'current' name wouldn't get them far because apparently 'Holly Alexander' lives in Nebraska and is a devote Christian so she certainly wouldn't be here"

"Vivian, how much did you steal?"

"Couple hundred ... thousand" Vivian mused hacking into cameras near the Stratosphere Tower.

Good evening turned terrible. Tony Stark had received a less than pleasant phone call from Pepper Pots telling him that his account was 300,000 dollars lighter and she was complaining about his gambling habit, which he denied fully.

"Just great." the billionaire phoned up a particular organisation that would help him locate the culprit,

"Mr Fury is busy at-"

"Well I don't care! Put Fury on!" he shouted angrily down the phone startling the group of guards gathered outside the building,

A very exasperated voice answered on the other end "What seems to be the problem Stark?"

Charlotte soon appeared from the tower and they left nonchalantly. Tony watched as she met with her younger companion and the two left looking downhearted, probably about losing their money Tony thought.

"I've just had three hundred thousand dollars stolen from my account!"

"I really don't see how that's my problem" Fury's voice said on the other end of the phone clearly exasperated

"I'm in Vegas with _your _people so would you care to explain how I got robbed?"

"Maybe the odds just weren't in your favour" Fury said before hanging up

"Fine" Tony said taking a small tablet out of his jacket pocket and hacking effortlessly into the casino's surveillance and saw Charlotte scout him out from the crowd and keep his attention while her younger companion who's face he couldn't see clearly stole his wallet and later dropped it on the ground at his feet to make him think he'd dropped it

Running face recognition software the womans name came up as Alice Winters a run away from South Carolina with a few warrants out for her arrest for charges including but not limited to blackmail, grifting, theft, and at least one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Tony smirked and called Fury back,

_"I thought I told you I don't care about your money loss" _Fury said

"That's not what I'm calling about. What does SHIELD know about an Alice Winters?"

* * *

"I've been thinking about it" I said as Vivian went through her tablet erasing my face from the surveillance cameras

"Yeah"

**"**I mean he's a billionaire right? He wouldn't notice a couple of hundred thousand missing"

**"**And with that I've bought us a new car ... and a motorbike for me and now to go gambling with money that's not mine**" **Vivian said brightly putting her tablet back into her bag

"Huzzah! What_ would_ we do without you?" I laughed pulling my hair into a messy braid and putting on a pair of sunglasses so as not to be noticed

"We'd have to get normal jobs and we wouldn't have the pleasure of swindling idiots out of dirty money" Vivan said simply putting on her glasses

**"**Normal jobs?" I said turning my nose up "I really don't like the sound of that. And besides if we don't swindle idiots out of their dirty money it would all end up with the government and no one wants that"

**"**And they don't need it. We need it to blow on proper things like food and things to make explosives and new electronics"

**"**And clothes don't forget clothes. And guns too we're two girls alone in the big bad city, we need all the protection we can get against all those asshats who try to steal our hard earned money"

Vivian and I headed back to the strip expecting to just wak back into a casino and be ignored as we normally were but instead we found the place crawling with guys in black suits and Mr Tony Stark looking pissed as all hell,

"We might be in a bit of trouble" I said to Vivan

"Nah I'm sure it's fine"

As soon as Vivian had spoken at least half the agents turned around to look at us. They must have been alerted by Stark because I could see him as well standing over the crowd along with another person I hadn't seen before,

"Shit" I turned on my heel and Vivian and I ran back through the park to the other side of town "You'll never take me ali –" I yelled right before colliding with a solid wall of muscle. Looking up from the spot on the ground where I'd landed after my collision I saw a sandy haired man dressed in blue with a star on his chest and a shield painted to look like the American flag, he was attractive however he seemed to be wearing tights "Hello there" I said my accent becoming more pronounced, if the southern charm had worked on Stark I was confident it would work on his partner.

Vivian however had other ideas and grabbed me by my upper arm and literally dragged me away from the sandy haired man in tights,

"Flirt later run now"

"But, but he's so pretty! And look at all those muscles!" I tried to protest

"And trying to arrest you!" Vivian said setting off several flash bangs to confuse our pursers "now snap out of it and run!"

**"**Ok, ok" I turned my attention back to my get away and once Vivian and I were a safe enough distance away from the main strip in an alley I turned my thoughts back to the sandy haired man "you know I can think of a few things where including handcuffs wouldn't be such a bad thing" I said with a crooked grin making Vivian laugh,

"You're such a perv you know that?"

"How rude I'm a camellia, I'm a lady you know"

"Yeah some lady" Vivian laughed poking her head around the alley wall, "Fuck those guys just don't give up do they?"

"Come on I have my car hidden around here" I said.

Vivian and I ran down the alley and came to a disused garage where I normally kept my car. It was an old camaro painted black so it didn't grab attention when I _did _have to drive it around the city. Vivian and I got into the car intending to grab the money we had stashed away and get out of the city.

Instead as soon as I turned onto a main road we found ourselves pursed by Stark in his Iron Man get up _and_ about ten different unmarked black sedan's that could only be federal agents who neither of us were too popular with,

"Viv can you do something about that?" I said gesturing to Stark in my rear view mirror,

"That I can" Vivian took her tablet out of her bag and quickly hacked into Stark's suit and I saw him stop in his tracks in the mirror, "I think Mr Stark and I should have some fun" Vivian smirked and I could see him suddenly start dancing the Macarena making Vivian howl with laughter.

I laughed myself although the situation stopped being funny when someone fired a shot at my car,

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS CAR COST!" I yelled out the window taking my .44 out of the glove box, "Vivian you drive!" I said leaning out the window and taking aim at the car that had fired on my baby,

"Ali I don't think I can drive and hack at the same time!" Viv yelled as I shot out the engine of one car and a bullet from another grazed my arm,

"SON OF A BITCH!" I yelled aiming at the engine of the other car,

"Alice!" Vivan yelled as she tried to steer the car with her knees and we ended up in a ditch, "I told you I couldn't drive and hack!" Vivian yelled as we climbed out of the car only to find ourselves looking down the barrels of collective glock 9mm's,

"Fuck" I said keeping a tight hold of my.44 only to have the sandy haired man grab my arms and try to wrench the gun from my grasp, "Unhand me you ruffian I am a lady!" I yelled my accent very profound

"Really ruffian?" Vivian asked raising an eyebrow at me sceptically

"It worked before" I shrugged

**"**Why not add thugs? Men with pointy teeth?" Vivian asked with a sarcastic eye roll

**"**Stop no more you'll just upset me!" I feigned a swoon but no one was buying it

"We're not in a fluffy Disney film ... I have some better words than a flash grenade" Vivian said eyeing the agents who currently had their guns pointed at us, and Stark himself who'd finally managed to shake off Vivian's hack and land

"I thought I'd give it a go. The Star Spangled Man here looks like he might have bought it" I said slipping out of the sandy haired man's grasp

"That's true although I think he stole those tights from Peter Pan" Vivian said snidely making me laugh

"I mean why would you dress like that in public? I mean I know it's Vegas and all but even the hookers are looking at him wondering what's going on"

"He could be the patriotic gimp?" Vivian suggested

"Then where's his mistress? But maybe that's what he wants us for?" I said with a straight face

"Sorry I'm not into gimps. So I'll leave you with Mr Star Spangled Gimp" Vivian said trying to get at her tablet but when several guns trained on her she thought better of the idea

I took a look at the sandy haired man again, trying to find a way out of this situation. He looked utterly confused and I don't think it was because Vivian and I were acting so nonchalant with guns pointed at us

"Basically Cap a gimp is a guy or a girl but usually a guy in a rubber or leather suit including a mask sometimes with a zip or a ball gag and he's paraded around by his mistress and he's basically a sex toy" Stark explained to his partner who just seemed traumatised by the information

The entire time I'd been thinking of an escape route Vivian had apparently been humming spice up your life because she looked at me and jerked her head at an opening between the sandy haired man and Stark

"Let's get out of here" I whispered, Vivian nodded and dropped a few more flash bangs creating the ideal diversion and we were able to slip off and head back to the small apartment we'd rented in the shadier part of town

"Ah I love traumatising people. I should have taken his shield I could have sold thing for a killing" Vivian said kicking off her boots grabbing a beer from the fridge and falling down onto the couch,

"Well if they're stupid enough to come back then we'll see what we can sell" I said settling into the worn armchair I'd found on the side of the street

"Do you think that guy has stuff under that? I mean it's pretty tight ... commando do you think? Or a thong" Vivian asked

"I'm thinking commando he seemed traumatised by the notion of a gimp I don't think he'd be big into thongs ... hmm commando. I'd like to see him commando, all those muscles" my mind wondered imaging the sandy haired man without that ridiculous uniform,

**"**I think he'd be more traumatised if he knew you were thinking about him naked he seems the easily embarrassed type" Vivian laughed

"He _was_ pretty though. You have to admit it. All those muscles. I'd love to see him without the peter pan get up" I said in a far off voice

"Oh dear don't tell him that he'd look like a lobster" Vivian howled with laughter and took a great gulp of her beer

"Oh well it's not like we'll see them again. I really don't think they're _that_ stupid" I said getting up from the armchair to get some more beer from the fridge

"Any man wearing tights that's not in a ballet company must have a few screws loose" Vivian said as I tossed her a beer

"Good point" I said hitting my bottle open on the side of the cabinet while Vivian opened hers with her zippo

**"**The screws probably belong to the guy who wants to me a gundamn robot" Vivian said taking a long drink

**"**Someone watched a little too much anime as I child methinks" I nodded in agreement with myself

"I think your right. I also think we should lie low for a while then get out of the city. I hear New York is nice this time of year" Vivian said taking another long drink

"I've never been to New York you know" I said, it was true. I'd really only travelled in the south and Nevada I'd never been North,

"Oh now we have to go" Vivian said getting up from the couch and grabbing her duffel bag from the closet,

"New York it is then. And hopefully the Star Spangled Gimp and Stark don't follow" I said downing what was left of my beer. Little did I know what I was getting myself into by heading to New York


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2:

The car alas was left behind and the girls left Las Vegas in the dead of night on a CVO Harley Davidson. They took a pit stop in Denver Colorado, enough time for them to stretch their legs, grab some food and some shut eye before heading out again.

"We'll avoid Nebraska, just in case they traced anything back there," Vivian explained checking the map on her tablet before hopping on her bike "We'll go through Kansas instead, it'll add an hour to the journey but I don't care if it means we don't get caught"

"Take me home, country road~" Alice started to sing from her spot on the back of the bike.

"I can't believe she got away" Tony slammed his hands on the desk, "How could you not catch her?"

"I didn't see you doing anything Stark" Captain America retorted, "You were dancing ... badly"

Tony glared daggers at the patriotic hero "Her friend hacked into my suit!"

"She must be pretty smart to do that" Dr Banner one of the best scientists mocked,

"Shut it Banner."

"Alright Stark your problem will have to wait, we've got a problem."

"BED!" Vivian cheered diving onto a large very comfortable bed,

"You booked us into the Hilton Hotel?" Alice asked admiring the lavish room,

"Hell yeah! I've just driven 2,553 miles! I deserve a comfort!" she sat up on the bed stretching her arms above her head "Beside I didn't pay for it Stark did"

The thieves dined lavishly in the Hilton celebrating a nice easy escape; they hadn't been chased for a long time so the experience was fun. While Alice had already fallen asleep by eleven, Vivian was sat at the desk with her tablet and laptop, making sure what happened in Las Vegas, stayed in Las Vegas.

"Bored let's see what's happening in the universe" she hummed hacking into the NASA computers "Stars, stars, space station, stars, planet, giant asteroid heading towards earth" Vivian stared blankly at the screens processing what she'd just said "Looks like it's entering earth's atmosphere ..." Vivian mumbled calculations to herself staring at the screens almost unblinking behind her glasses.

_Knock_

_Knock _

_"_Room service"

Vivian sneered "We didn't order any!" she half shouted back,

_Knock; knock; knock; knock_

_"_Just answer the door" Alice stirred turning her back to the door

"I'm going to seriously going to put their head through the damn door" she huffed rubbing her stinging eyes as she opened the door "What?" looking up at a very familiar face, the door was slammed very loudly again "ALICE!"

"Stop shouting" she retorted ignoring her friend who was thrown across the room as the door was kicked open, "What the hell?"

Vivian staggered to her feet as Tony Stark entered the room followed by the blonde man from Vegas "I have to say I didn't think you'd find us this quick"

"You chose the wrong time to hack NASA"

"If you saw the same thing shouldn't you be worried about where that's going to land? If I've worked it out right I'd say it'll land in Liberty state park in a few hours" Vivian sat down at the desk chair "SO shouldn't you be doing something? Mr Hero? Cause it's a big asteroid"

"She's right we-"

Tony cut off his partner "You're both coming with us"

"WHAT?"

"Fury might find you useful."

"It'll be fine, you said" Alice huffed elbowing Vivian in the ribs,

"I didn't expect this"

The pair had been forcefully removed from the hotel and taken via helicopter to the heli carrier which belonged to an organization called SHIELD both girls had been handcuffed 'just for precautions' according to Stark

"I still don't get why you 'need' us." Vivian was making a mental map of every door, level and vents as they were led through the base.

"So these are the girls that robbed you?" a tall bald man with an eye patch eyed them up, "They don't look like much"

"Yeah that's right we're not, so you can just let us go now"

The man they assumed was Fury stared down at them

"I know you're probably very capable because not only did you hack into NASA you hacked into Tony Stark's Ironman suit."

Vivian looked very smug with the praises

"Yes well it's a hobby."

"I also heard that you have information regarding the asteroid heading towards earth"

"Well not really information just it's landing point Liberty State park. I couldn't tell you an exact time though."

"She's right, I've verified it myself, I think it will land by at least nine pm" Banner explained,

"SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY WE'RE HERE?" Alice shouted loudly

"Yes well, we'd like to add you two to the SHIELD team. The problem is that asteroid you saw isn't what it seems. There is a powerful being called Apocalypse hiding inside it. At one point Apocalypse helped save the earth but I don't think he's here to help."

"Why not just shoot it down?" Alice asked not seeing the problem,

Tony opened his mouth to explain the situation but Vivian took charge "you can't not with something that big, it'll cause all times of problems. It would be easier to wait for it to land and contain it" the shackles around her wrists clattered loudly as they hit the floor "Sorry they started to chafe"

So there we were standing in this super secret base everyone staring at Vivian as her handcuffs fell to the ground,

"Sorry they started to chafe" she said shrugging her shoulders. I sighed and dropped my own having unlocked them with a bobby pin while we were in the helicopter,

"I don't really like bracelets" I said rubbing my sore wrists, "so about your problem what exactly do you need us for? I mean you've got superheros at your beck and call and at least one of them seems to be as smart as Viv" I said nodding to Dr Banner, "so what exactly do you need us for?'

"You have a _unique _set of skills" Fury said looking at the handcuffs on the ground, "As I understand it you're rather good with a gun" Fury said looking at me in particular

"My Daddy taught me to hunt when I was little" I said with a shrug, "but I'm sure you have more than enough gun toting agents"

"I do but that's not why I'm asking you to be an agent" Fury said "You two have been on our radar for a while now ever since you dissolved your separate _organisations" _

_"_So what would be actually be doing? Playing human shield to these idiots? No offence Doctor"

"None taken"

"Cause I'm no one's back up dancer" the sandy haired man shifted somewhat uncomfortably at this,

"You won't be anyone's 'back up dancer'" Fury said with the trace of a smirk on his face

"So what then?" Vivian asked shooting a glare at Stark, "You need a new code monkey and assassin? Cause those are our marketable skills"

"Blunt as ever" I laughed, "But she has a point. We're good at what we do but what we do isn't pretty and I'm sure you have more than enough assassins and code monkeys"

"Well if you'd prefer prison. Because technically you _did_ steal from Tony and you could be facing life in a federal prison"

"Prison! Oh god no! Communal showers! Forced exercise! And not to mention that orange does not go with my skin tone" I exclaimed with a shudder making Vivian laugh

"You are such a girl sometimes" she scoffed

"I'm a debutante! Of course I'm a girl!" I said turning to Fury "Mr Fury we accept your offer"

"Wait we do?" Vivian said turning her head to face me sharply

"Yes we do" I said taking Viv to one side "Just think of all the toys they have here! Big expensive government toys"

"We accept we accept!" Vivian said happily "SHOW ME THE LAB! I wanna make things that can level big buildings" everyone in the room looked from Vivian to me. I knew what they were thinking, doll sized Vivian who didn't look like much of a threat excited about making things that could blow up a large building and me. Petite southern me who had issues with prison because of the colour of the jumpsuits, "Err we don't have to play dress up do we? I really don't do well with fitted clothes" she said looking at the sandy haired man's outfit

"You make a good point. Tight things leave no room to really fight" I agreed nodding my head in agreement with Vivian.

The sandy haired man shifted uncomfortably on the spot,

"I have a question for Mr. patriotic gimp ... are you wearin' underwear? I mean something that tight would require a thong or commando" Vivian said suddenly making me laugh rather loudly "Am just curious"

"What?" the sandy haired man said although it came out more as a squeak than anything

"Well we could always find out" I added suggestively

"With that expression he's goin commando" Vivian said, I gave the sandy haired man the once over and agreed with Vivian's analysis,

"Yeah I think you're right" I said only adding to the sandy haired man's discomfort, by this stage we'd attracted a rather large audience including but not limited to Doctor Banner whom I knew only because of Vivian's slight obsession with his work, most of the agents in the room were also staring at Vivian and I,

"I think it's going to be an 'educational' stay for us" Vivian laughed

"I think you're right. If not I can always make it educational" I said edging closer to the sandy haired man

"Just don't traumatize him too much ... he needs to save the planet" Vivian said looking around her at the kinds of toys this place had to offer

"I make no promises" I said to her crossing my arms over my chest

"Do you think he wears that under his clothes like superman?" Vivian whispered to me

"I don't know I mean I suppose it's tight enough and he could just rip the shirt open and ..." I couldn't end my sentence because the images that floated across my mind were enough to render me speechless

"I would stay away from her ... and put some more clothes on ... eh second thought don't be alone with her EVER if you want to stay sane" Vivian warned him

"Um why? She doesn't seem that bad. She said she was a debutante as well and they're generally nice girls" the sandy haired man said

"NO!" Vivian said and I could see her trying to shake the sandy haired man "No, no, just no! Sweetheart you went red when he explained what a gimp was" she said jerking a thumb at Stark, "what this girl can do ... is a lot worse. I JOKE NOT" she yelled

"I'm not _that_ bad" I said indignantly

"Oh you're back from your fantasy land" Vivian said poking me a little

"Yeah I'm saving it for later" I said swatting Viv's hand away, "That is unless you want to experience the real thing" I said turning my attention back to the sandy haired man

"Run! RUN AND DONT LOOK BACK!" Vivian turned to our audience "are you regretting wanting us here? Cause she only gets worse"

"That I will admit to. I'm also trying to reign in the crazy" I said nodding in agreement with myself

Our audience suddenly seemed to back away slowly from both Vivian and I fearing perhaps what we might do next,

"I'm not as bad" Vivian said "Well as long as I get to make things, explosive things and I get fed chocolate"

"Otherwise y'all should be hiding in those nuclear bunkers" I said to our dwindling audience

"You said y'all" Vivian laughed "Pfft country girl"

"Not even darlin. I grew up on an old plantation house. I had a gator as a pet you don't get gators in the country only near water" I explained

"You had a gator?" Vivian asked with a raised eyebrow, "was it called Louis?"

"Actually it was. But after Louis from Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire not the gator in that Princess and the Frog movie"

"Well now we've scarred everyone here for life I think we should move on" Vivian said, "Or you could always just let us go I would have preferred to stay in Las Vegas some more so many casinos I hadn't been in or thrown out of"

"I'm afraid we can't do that" Fury said, "But if you like SHIELD will help you set up in the city"

"Help set up do you mean find us a place to live?" Vivian asked, "Cause we have specifics for where we live"

"Yeah so we'll take our leave and go apartment hunting in Manhattan I think" I said, "We'll drop y'all a line when we get set up"

"Captain Rodgers why don't you go along, you can help these ladies with whatever they need" Fury said making the sandy haired man, Rodgers, salute him and follow us out the door. Poor man didn't know what he was getting himself into


	4. Chapter 4

Viv and I headed straight to Manhattan. We still had some of the money we'd swindled from Stark so we'd be able to make a decent deposit on an apartment,

"So Captain Rodgers you know our names but we don't know yours" Viv said as we walked around the upper-class neighbourhoods looking for somewhere we might be able to live,

"It's Steve" he said looking slightly out of place in the t-shirt and jeans he'd changed into. Of course any looks he was getting were mostly women checking him out. Vivian and I attracted more attention.

Vivian in her black platform boots and black bomber jacket, me in my heels and clearly designer jacket. We looked like complete opposites which made people wonder what we were doing together,

"So you're a Captain. An army man" I said, "My great - great granddaddy was in the confederate army. He was a captain too. We had a picture of him on the mantle at home"

"Where are you from?"

"Miss Duke is from South Carolina and I'm from London" Vivian said. She was looking up at an old redbrick building, "let's go in here" she said walking into the building.

Steve and I followed her inside where she scowered a little notice board to find a number for a building manager, "ok do we use our actual names or -"

"Fake ones. Our actual names have criminal records attached to them" I said checking out the building

"Okie doke" so Vivan took out her phone and dialled the number speaking quickly while I tuned her out and checked out Steve, "she says she'll be here in ten minutes"

"I guess the British accent was an incentive to hurry" I said

Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, a slightly chic looking woman ran through the door,

"Hi" I put on my best fake smile and drew the word out, "I'm Lotte and this is Holly and this here is Luke"

"Naomi" the woman said pronouncing it 'nay-omi' "so you're interested in renting an apartment?"

"Yes we are. We've just moved to New York and we need somewhere to live" Viv said putting on her own fake smile and shaking hands with 'nay-omi'

"Well why don't we go on up then" 'nay-omi' said leading the way up the stairs, "You'll be living on the third floor. You could normally take the elevator but the stairs are normally quicker" 'nay-omi' continued to prattle on without realising that neither Vivian or I were listening to her.

When we got up into the apartment itself 'nay-omi' started talking about how there was only one previous tenant a little old lady who never was around because she was away at fashion shows or fucking twenty year olds.

I knew the only thing Vivian really cared about was where she could make explosives and what the wi-fi was like,

"Oh the wireless internet is fibre optic up to 25mb of speed" 'nay-omi' said

"We'll take it then" Vivian said looking at me

"How much is the deposit?" I asked. 'Nay-omi' was clearly a woman like my mother and instead wrote down a number on a piece of paper and handed it to Steve who in turn handed it to me and I handed it to Vivian who looked it and immediately took out her tablet and wired the required money into the account 'Nay-omi' specified,

"What are we like for cash?" I asked once 'Nay-omi' called her bank to check the money had gone in

"Enough to get furniture" Vivian said checking some things out on her tablet

"So furniture shopping" I said, "Steve do you know anywhere to get good discount furniture?"

"Um there used to be a place in Brooklyn" he said, "I don't know if it's there anymore or not"

"Well once Naomi gets off the phone -"

"Oh it's Nay-omi" she said sweetly although I could feel the sharp edge my mother's voice always held. Especially after her second glass of chardany

"Whatever" I said under my breath, "Well assuming the money went through. Luke and I are going to get some furniture"

"Oh you were thinking of moving in today?" 'Nay-omi' asked

"Well we start a new job tomorrow" Vivian said, "And we need a place to live" Vivian said

"Well I'll just get everything organised then" 'Nay-omi' said, "I'll return with your keys and your lease"

"Take your time" Vivian said as she closed the door behind 'Nay-omi' "Ok good now to check out how blast proof this place is" Vivian said with a smile making her elongated canines show

"And on that note I'm off to buy furniture" I said, "Try not to blow the place up" I said heading out the door with Steve following, "now where was this furniture shop?"

* * *

Vivian went around the apartment tapping on walls and floors getting a rough idea on the thickness of them.

"no time like the present" she mused pulling out a flash grenade from under her jacket. Opening the door to corridor she threw the grenade into the room closing the door as walked out the room

"fire in the hole" seconds later there was a slight vibration through the door and floor but no noise

"I'll be fine if I don't use anything too much" reopening the door Vivian darted across to the window to alleviate the room of the smell of burning. "Next test, good old firecrackers" Vivian always carried small packs of homemade firecrackers just in case of emergencies. she placed one string (contains four firecrackers) lighting it and leaving the room closing the door behind her. A smirk flashed across her face as the fireworks made no sound in either of the rooms "looks like we found a good place" Vivian sighed as she sat on the floor in front of the window with her tablet "Just wish we weren't at their beck and call" online gambling was one quick and easy way to earn some extra cash and a good time waster until Alice and Steve arrived back with furniture.

The landlady soon reappeared with a set of keys though she didn't look too happy, that quickly changed when she saw Vivian and her tablet,

"Are you any good with computers?" she asked,

"I should be, it's my job" Vivian joked backed "I take it you have computer problems?"

"Darn thing wont load anything" she huffed, handing Vivian the keys and lease

"I can have a look if you want?"

"O that'd be swell" Nay-omi smiled rushing off to fetch the laptop.

If Vivian had her way she'd have chucked the whole thing out of the window '_How can one person have this much shit on their laptop?' _

"Okay first problem you've overloaded the laptop so it's not the fact that it won't load it's just very slow and you're second problem you're using Internet explorer" Naomi was hovering behind Vivian who was still sat on the floor,

"Why is that a bad thing?"

"Internet Explorer is terrible, you should at least use google chrome." where computers are involved Vivian becomes a critic if you're not doing it right, "you need to invest in an external hard drive, you've completely filled your hard drive hence why it's running this slow"

"I don't have one of those..."

Vivian was ready to push Naomi out of the window with her laptop "do you have any memory sticks?" blank expression from the landlady "they're usually about this big, you plug it into the USB port here" Vivian was slowly losing her patience

and something clicked with Naomi "O yes I have one of those! I'll go get it"

"Thank god!"

"Is this okay?" Naomi passed over a small pink VW beetle USB stick,

"That's fine"

"I bought that ages ago! it was just so cute. I didn't know what it was for" Naomi prattled on loudly luckily Vivian is a master at drowning people out.

"I highly suggest investing in an external hard drive, they're not expensive and you store all your music, pictures etc on it allowing your laptop to run faster." Vivian handed Naomi the laptop and the USB car back "Also I'd advise on uninstalling the sims3 and all of its many expansion packs, because it takes up far too much space on here and with your current specs it won't run at its best either."

Naomi smiled and nodded, she probably didn't understand a work Vivian sat "Where can I-"

"Computer stores. Amazon." the English woman sighed deeply "Next time I go shopping I will pick you one up."

"O thank you! I can pay you back of course."

"If you have any computer or electronic problems just ask"

"O that's wonderful, if you're good with electrical things too it'd be so much easier to ask you then hiring someone and of course as a 'thank you' I can lower your rent too"

"Deal Mrs Nay-omi" Vivian smiled as the landlady exited the room leaving her to the large empty space that was the apartment "Thank god she's gone"

* * *

Steve and I were wandering around Brooklyn trying to find the discount furniture store. In the ever changing nature of New York he couldn't be sure if it was still where it used to be,

"Now explain something. You're from Brooklyn?" I asked

"Yeah born and raised"

"But you don't know if a little furniture store is still where it was twenty years ago?"

"Seventy years ago actually" Steve said

"Ok now I'm confused. How could you know if a little furniture store was here seventy years ago?"

"Oh uh ..."

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"Well the thing is I'm not really in my twenties"

"Could have fooled me"

"I _was _in my twenties seventy years ago when I joined the army. Oh hey I know this neighnourhood. Yeah I got beat up in that alley. And that used to be a parking lot"

"Wait just a cotton picking minute. Who exactly beat _you_ up?"

"Oh well I used to be really skinny" Steve said

"Ok you're not telling me everything are you?"

"The furniture store should be around here somewhere" Steve said trying to change the subject

"Oh no. Come on boy out with it" I said standing my ground and folding my arms over my chest

"Ok but you probably won't believe me" so Steve told me how in 1944 he was this 90 pound weakling who wanted nothing more than to join the army.

He tried six times and finally a german doctor put him through on the basis that he didn't like bullies and his six tries. So he went through basic training and was chosen to be the first in a long line of super soldiers only it didn't go exactly to plan and the doctor died and Steve instead of heading over seas to help with the war effort he became the 'dancing monkey' known as Captain America, "I finally did get over seas to fight. I ended up fighting a nazi deep science division called Hydra. Their leader was a guy called Schmitt who thought he was better than everyone else and wanted to prove it by blowing up the allied forces"

"Idiot"

"So in the end we managed to stop him but I lost my best friend in the process"

"Sorry to hear that"

"Yeah and then the plane that was headed for New York was gonna wipe out everything so I put it in the water somewhere in the artic and thanks to the sereum I was able to survive for seventy years"

"Wow that's one hell of a life story. But you know you look spry for an older gentleman. Now where was that furniture shop?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Four:**

"How can they still be out furniture shopping?" Vivian sighed online gambling can only entertain someone for so long, the screen on her tablet flickered violently "What the-" looking out the window she noticed a stream of light in the sky "O shit." shoving the tablet in her bag, she grabbed her goggles off the side and ran out of the room locking it on her way out '_Why did I lock it? Not like there's anything to steal'_

Her trusty Harley sat outside the apartment building; Vivian knew exactly where to follow the light to 'Liberty State Park'

"I hope those idiots at SHIELD have seen this" Vivian gave little notice to traffic and speed limits as she sped towards the park. The asteroid loomed with amazing velocity, as it collided with the park, the ground shook violently Vivian felt it through her bike. Without stopping she rode the bike straight into the park were several people were gathered round trying to look into the crater that had been created. Vivian dismounted and checked in the storage container on her bike "Please tell me, she left something in here...a pistol. Fat lot of good that's going to be." Vivian also found her spare bag of explosives "At least I'm not unarmed."

She too joined the crowd; the crater was fairly large but still less than twenty feet wide. The chunk of space rock sat there a large crack appeared and steam gushed out of it like a geyser this caused a lot of the crowd to run off screaming already.

The flow of steam came to halt and no more cracks appeared on the outer surface,

'_I want to see what's inside'_ her curious nature wanted to see the being that was called Apocalypse but maybe he wasn't in this one? What's the worst that could happen? Vivian jumped into the small crater and onto the top of the rock,

"Hey are you crazy?" one guy shouted at her,

"We should call the x-files!"

"Go right ahead and call Mulder and Scully! you'll be waiting an eternity" Vivian snapped back, pulling a small torch her bag she shone it into the crack, putting her ear to the rock to see if she could hear any movement and knocking on the shell to see if she could figure out if it were hollow. "Hmm it's not hollow, I really want to crack it open like an egg" rising to her feet triggered another crack and this time steam didn't follow only a blinding light and a thundering explosion.

Vivian heard the screams of the people that remained, the light faded. The man she figured was Apocalypse loomed in the air above her, from where she was stood she could only see his feet. Vivian clambered out of the hole with difficulty in her current footwear. Now getting a better glimpse of the man, he was tall well over seven foot in height, silver skin, the metallic blue markings on his face gave him the appearance of a robot, the silver and blue steel armour he wore heightened that.

"BOW DOWN TO THE MIGHTY APOCALYPSE!" he ordered to the terrified civilians: so terrified they daren't move "YOU IGNORE MY COMMANDS?"

"Shit" Vivian took out a string of firecrackers lighting them before hurtling them towards the alien, "Fire in the hole!" she shouted partly due to habit,

The giant turned to her his red eyes glowing angrily "SO A PUNY MORTAL WISHES TO CHALLENGE ME?"

Vivian stood her ground, gambling was what she did best and her poker face was second to none "Well that's what it looks like doesn't it, En Sabah Nur?"

"SO YOU KNOW MY OLD NAME, INTERESTING"

"I know things...I guess that was you're name before you went bat shit crazy?" Vivian kept one eye on Apocalypse and the other on the quiver spectators '_why are they still here?'_ she made the mistake of taking her focus off the alien for a split second to look back and have him stood dangerously close, she had to crane her neck to look up at him "Ah shit" a heavy hand seized her head and effortlessly removed her from the ground,

"YOU ARE INDEED A PUNY HUMAN" the alien scoffed and threw her like a rag doll across the park, colliding with her bike,

Vivian was laid out on top of her fallen bike, slightly dazed. "Christ" sitting up to notice Apocalypse had now forgotten about her and had refocused on the crowd. "Looks like I have to bring out something a little louder" producing a small tennis ball shaped shell, throwing it with accuracy at the aliens head a gunshot shortly followed as the ball came into contact with his head. Taking this opportunity to run over to the idiots that remained "SNAP OUT OF IT AND FUCKING RUN!" she shouted grabbing one guy by the shoulder, he nodded and the others followed suit.

"YOU STILL DARE TO CHALLENGE APOCALYPSE?" Vivian didn't need to turn around to know that this guy was pissed and stood directly behind her,

"Yup I guess I do. What can I say? I'm a gambler by nature" ducking as she let a flash grenade off directly in Apocalypse's face and rolled out the way,

"FOOLISH HUMAN." the flash didn't blind Apocalypse which Vivian found out the hard away when she was picked up and thrown across the park again, at least she was somewhat prepared and managed a decent landed which turned into a cartwheel to avoid a laser beam that had been fired.

"I didn't know he could do that"

"I can do anything for I am Apocalypse" he stated like it was common sense, teleporting over to her again "you cannot win against me

"I can damn well try!" Vivian snaped throwing another ball shaped bomb in his face and shooting it with the gun, not a smart thing since this bomb contained a high level of tannerite, and the force sent her flying off her feet. '_I am so not good at this running around shit'_

* * *

Steve and I had just paid for the new furniture when something exploded shaking the foundations of the city and making the windows in the store shatter,

"Earthquake" someone yelled sending everyone into a panic about there being an earthquake in New York

"Please lord tell me that isn't what I think it is" I ran out of the store and saw a plume of smoke rising up from the east, "Steve you're native would you say that's liberty park?"

"Yeah"

"Then it looks like I'm starting work early. Get on to your super best friends will ya I'm gonna go make sure Viv isn't in too much trouble"

I ran off towards the park and had to fight my way through throngs of people to get into the damn park, "VIVIAN!" I yelled running into the park using the motorcycle tracks in the grass as my guide

"ALICE!" Viv yelled back I could see her running through the smoke being chased by what seemed to be a giant robot, "I'm guessing that's acpocalyspe?"

"Yeah and he's pissed" Vivian said skidding to a halt beside me,

"Might that be because you threw a grenade at him?"

"Nah he was already pissed. Started talking about us all bowing down to him as soon as he came out of his space pod"

"Space pod?"

"Well yea I mean that's what it is"

"YOU SEEK TO DEFEAT ME BY BRINGING IN AN ALLY?" Apocalypse yelled

"Well we're really just opening for the main band" I said, "We're only semi famous at this point and only really with a certain crowd but we're working on becomming more mainstream"

"YOU JOKE IN VAIN"

"And that makes fuck all sense" Vivian said, "so what kind of weapons have we got?" She asked turning to me

"Well I've got my .44 what about you?" Vivian held up her .36

"I've got some flash bangs as well. That should keep us moderatly alive until Steve gets here with the rest of the super best friends - I'm assuming?"

"You assume correctly"

"Alright then. Let's try not to die" Vivian said pulling the pin of a grenade with her teeth as I aimed my gun at Apocalpse's head

"Cause it would suck to die on the first day of the job" I agreed

"Here goes nothing then"

* * *

Vivian reached into her bag and instead of ball shell she pulled out a wad of what looked like orange plasticise light bulb "Ali can you distract him?"

Alice looked at her gone out "at least give me a grenade" with that she ran forth shouting 'Varmint',

Vivian hid behind her bike and got to work, wrapping the plasticine like substance around her remaining four firecrackers and a small chip, setting up a timer on the tablet. "Let's roll" vaulting over her bike to join the fray running towards Alice "Give me a boost!"

Alice cupped her hands to make a foothold for Vivian to use as a spring board, giving her enough height to reach Apocalypse's face,

"Eat Semtex bitch!" she squished the orange plasticine brick into the aliens face. Vivian's big plan backfired when she got caught, '_O dear...' _ Vivian struggled in vain and pathetically,

"You're big plan was to get caught?" Alice shouted, firing several rounds at Apocalypse,

"PUNY HUMANS" with that the alien fired a laser beam at Alice, dirt and dust flew everywhere,

"ALICE!" Time was ticking, but it's a good thing Vivian is blessed with the devils luck. A last minute intervention a force that barrelled into Apocalypse like a tank, released Vivian from the titan grip sending her crashing onto the cold ground. Just in time the timer on the tablet beeped manically as the wireless detonator trigged the Semtex and its other components off into an explosion that could have levelled a small building.

Vivian had hit her head hard on the ground blurring her vision but all she heard was apocalypse claiming he would be back "I like explosions" she murmured sitting up very gingerly,

"You okay Viv?"

Flashing a grin and a thumps up she gradually clambered to her feet "I'll be fine,"

"You could have warned me about that" Tony huffed gesturing to the second crater behind him,

"Didn't exactly have the time did I?" she sighed again "what waste of Semtex, I think that was my last"

Tony stared at her "how did you get hold of Semtex?"

"The same way I get hold of everything, illegally" she retorted, turning to Alice "I'm glad you're alright, I saw lasers and smoke"

Alice smiled and leaned on Steve "Someone has good timing,"

"I'll say, how long does it take someone to put on a pair of tights?"

"T-they're not tights" Steve argued back his face flushing again,

"That's like saying Stark isn't a playboy"

* * *

"Yeah she's fine" I said with relief. Vivian was many things, careful was not one of them

"So what did you guys realisticly hope to do?" Stark asked, "I mean you've got what a handful of grenades and two pistols"

"Hey we've gotten out of worse situations with less" I argued

"Yes but this is a giant alien who wants to destory the planet" Steve said

"Which is no different from a six foot five trucker who won't take no for an answer" I said simply reloading my gun,

"I HAVE NO TIME TO DEAL WITH YOU PATHETIC HUMANS" Apocalpsye roared before placing his hands together. I watched as particles of light created a giant ball of energy aimed directly at us, "this I don't see ending well for we normal types" I said looking for a possible means to avoid the giant ball of energy about to be fired at us,

"I got this" Stark said flying up into the air and aiming his own weapons at Apocalypse. As he fired them something strange happened. The energy created by Starks weapon was absorbed into the ball of energy Apocalypse himself was creating and Stark was blown backwards into a cluster of trees by the backlash

"Any one got anymore bright ideas?" Vivian asked

"Yeah I've got one. Hit the deck!" I yelled as Apocalypse fired his energy beam. Viv and I dropped to the ground and I tried to shield myself with my hands but it didn't really work and I managed to get hit pretty badly in the face with a flying rock which, if the warmth on my face was any indication, cut my head pretty badly.

I looked up briefly and saw that Steve was standing directly in the line of fire his shield raised and he was able to block at least some of the energy beam. Or he was until he was blown back by the impact and he too landed on the ground.

With us all incapacitated Apocalypse was able to take off and at super sonic speeds leaving the rest of us in his wake,

"Viv?"

"Yeah?"

"You dead?"

"Not this time"

"Me either. Steve?"

"I'm good"

"Stark"

"Still alive"

I picked myself up off the ground and dusted myself off finding little scrapes and cuts on my arms and my jeans were torn to shit.

Viv was in the same boat as I was only most of her clothes seemed to be explosion damaged,

"Upsy daisy" I said holding out my hand for Steve as Viv checked her explosives stock

"You have a twig in your hair" Steve said once I helped him up

"What where?"

"Here I got it" Steve pulled a little twig out of my hair

"Thanks for you know jumping in the line of fire"

"Your welcome. We're a team right?"

"Right"

"Well if you two are done with your moment I think we should give Fury a call and have his guys come pick this up. I want a look inside" Stark said knocking on the pod Apocalypse had arrived in

"Uh yeah I'll do that now" Steve said walking off

"You know your head looks like a period right?" Viv said after a moment of silence, "Period head"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Five:**

"Are you aware how dangerous your actions were?" nick fury was furious -no pun intended- with the reckless actions of his two new recruits.

"Honestly I don't see the problem, I prioritized the safety of the people around me" Vivian argued paying more attention to her tablet than the director.

"You call throwing grenades around safe?"

"They were flash grenades and firecrackers are legal to own" the conversation was more like a tennis match and Vivian was pushing her luck.

"And the Semtex?"

Vivian shrugged "illegally acquired and in all fairness there was no-one around"

Fury sighed annoyed with girl already "do I need to confiscate all of your explosives?"

Vivian laughed at Fury.

"Like to see you try"

"GET OUT! I'll deal with you later" Vivian didn't look up from her tablet as she saluted leaving the room. She followed her feet the room she longed to be in the lab were the space pod was but alas no key card no entry, to normal people that is. Vivian knew they'd be monitoring things more carefully now so she decided to take the old fashioned way in: the vents. She kicked it in and climbed up closing the gate behind her crawling through the dusty tunnels till she was directly above the labs and dropped down, closing the vent after as to not arouse suspicion.

Walking around the pod she looked at the quick notes someone had made. Though she sat and read them under the desk, should someone walk past and see an unknown person they'd instantly sound the alarm and she'd be in trouble with the cranky bald man again.

"Is there a reason you're sat under the desk?"

Vivian jumped a mile hitting her head on the desk "o sweet Jesus that hurt" she noticed the man crouched down in front of her as Dr Bruce banner. "Hi Dr Banner" she crawled out from under the unit still rubbing her sore head.

"You were?" he looked from the documents in her hand, which she passed back over,

"Reading your notes on the pod"

"How did you get in without the code?"

"Good old fashion know how...the vents and those things are dusty" she laughed casually "so doctor can I help?"

Banner smiled "I could use the help"

'_He has the loveliest smile'_ she thought and set to helping him with the pod.

"Actually give me five minutes if I heard right Alice was heading to the med bay...do you have anything that gives a good electrical charge?"

On the other side Steve was trying to calm a very irate Alice as the nurse in the med bay tried to give her stitches,

"Oh come on it's just a little numbing agent. I went through worse when I had my procedure"

Alice huffed glaring at the poor nurse who just wanted to help "and I don't rightly care. I hate needles and that's all there is to it. Just give me something to hold against it to stop the bleeding and a band aid and I'll be fine"

Alice's words were short lived when she passed out "hello" Vivian smiled a tazer in one hand "I thought you might have some trouble with her, she freaks at needles. She'll be out for about five minutes so I'd get working on them stitches."

Vivian swiftly returned to lab this time through the door, borrowing Dr Banners pass. Tony had also come to assist with the work,

"Well here's the arsonist"

"Hey I prefer professional pyrotechnic" Vivian replied, putting her glasses back on.

Back in the med bay Alice had woken up "I'm gonna skin that bitch alive" she stormed past Steve and headed for the most likely place for Vivian to be the lab "VIVIAN ROSE PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!"

Vivian hid behind the doctor "I did it for your own good. I swear." banner looked at her confused "you know I borrowed that tazer well I used it on Ali so she could get stitches without beating the nurse to death"

Tony decided to step in before anyone got too angry "Why don't we all calm down and have a drink" Alice answered his suggestion with a well aimed punch in the gut

"Stay out of this" so Steve removed Alice by force, picking her up kicking and screaming.

"You have an interesting friend" banner looked back at the petit woman behind him,

"Well it's not the first time she's tried to kill me, I was her target at one point, someone hired her to kill me. But heck that was a few years ago now and we're practically family now."

Tony just couldn't understand these girl's "and you still piss her off?"

Vivian chuckled "on a daily basis, besides she knows it's beneficial to keep me alive hacking and card counting racks in a lot of cash"

Stark frowned at here "speaking of cash"

Without looking up from her work she replied "already spent it on somewhere to live instead of staying at cheap hotels again" and with that she zoned back into her work.

* * *

After being dragged kicking and screaming from the lab by Steve I was sent home by an equally irate black man,

"Cap keep an eye on her" Fury ordered going back to trying to clean up Vivian's mess

"May as well make the most of it" I decided as I headed back to the apartment just as the furniture was being delivered, "Right well I guess I'd better roll my sleeves up. You don't need to stay if you don't want to" I told Steve as I took off my destroyed jacket and got to work on assembling my bed,

"Director Fury said to keep an eye on you" Steve said as a reply

"Yes but in that get up I'll not get anything done because I'll be laughing at you the whole time. You and your tights"

"They aren't tights" Steve defended

"They sure as hell look like tights" I argued back, "if you're going to stick around at least give me a hand" I said trying to read the instructions for putting up the bed,

"Need some help there?" Steve laughed after I got fed up with the instructions and tried to simply hammer the bed together

"I never did anything like this before" I admitted, "When I was at home my Dad put everything together and when I left home I stayed in motels mostly. After meeting Viv we started to stay in fancy hotels. This is our first apartment"

"What happened to make you leave home?" Steve asked taking the instructions from me

"I'd finally had enough of my life being planned out for me" Steve picked up a screwdriver and got to work on putting together the bed,

"I know a little of what that's like" he said, "after my procedure I was paraded around like a dancing monkey I went from city to city selling bonds and knocking out Adolf Hitler so I understand wanting to break free of what other people want for you"

"I come from a place steeped in tradition. My great - great grandmamma was a deb so my great grandmamma was a deb and you see where I'm going with this.

It was expected of me to be a deb and to make a 'respectable' marriage and then my daughter would be a deb. But I didn't want that so I broke the rules.

Instead of going to tea parties with the other debs my age I went drinking in the backs of trucks with boys like my Daddy.

Mamma didn't like that. Thought I could do better than rough neck boys and farm hands. Of course Daddy thought it was great because those are the kinds of boys that will take care of their girlfriends.

And that lead to some brutal arguments in my house. My only refuge was drinking with those boys in their trucks or goin huntin with my Granddaddy. It got to the point where Mamma started to lock me in my room to stop me doing anything she didn't deem deb appropriate.

I was locked in this world that had been planned out for me by my Mamma. I was a social tool without a use. I was screaming all the time on the inside. It got to the point where I was so neurotic about being trapped just wanting to break out.

Eventually I realised that if I wanted out I'd have to get myself out so one evenin I waited till Mamma was passed out drunk with her box of wine and I grabbed all the money I'd been saving in an old confederate tin under my bed and my Daddy's old .44 and I made a break for it into the night. I was only sixteen"

"So what happened after that?"

"Well I realised that I could get what I wanted by batting my eyelashes at some fool and when that didn't work force did. So I learned to fight and when I was eighteen I started my own hit woman business. Anything for a fee. Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. When I was twenty two I met Vivian. She'd stolen money from a client and I went to kill her and get his money back. But when I met her I saw so much of myself in her that I just couldn't. So we decided to become partners and I told my client the deed was done. He paid me and Viv and I split the cash. We've been together since"

"What happened to Vivian? You said you saw a lot of yourself in her"

"It aint my story to talk if you wanna know your best asking her yourself. Here jump on this bed with me" I said once Steve finished putting up the bed

"Um I don't think -"

"I just want to make sure it's sturdy" I said

"Ok" so Steve got on the bed with me and I had the opportunity to ogle him up close,

"I guess I should try and put the rest of the furniture up myself"

"But you have no idea how" Steve said, "I'm here so I can help"

So Steve put up the rest of the furniture around the new apartment and it finally looked like a place someone could actually live. All the while I just sat or stood around ogling Steve.

After all the furniture had been put up I was able to buy some bed clothes and cushions. Nothing too fancy just enough that the place would actually look like a home.

Eventually Viv came back. She poked her head around the door,

"Can I come in?" She asked

"Yeah I've forgiven you"

"I'm gonna go then" Steve said

"Thanks for all your help!" I waved as he left the apartment

"I brought a peace offering" Viv said holding up a six pack she'd bought somewhere. The two of us sat on the new couch in silence for a while before I spoke

"So I shared my sob story"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah he was real nice about it. Just listened and didn't judge"

"Alice"

"Yes?"

"Try not to break this one ok? He's kind of important"

"I make no promises"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Six**

Vivian hadn't slept well in the new apartment, nothing serious she was eager to carry on the research with the pod, they hadn't got very far they'd hit a wall when the pod closed itself and nothing they did would reopen it.

Steve seemed to be acting as their personal chauffer to the Helicarrier not that Alice seemed to mind too much, upon reaching the SHIELD base, Alice was instructed to visit the med to check on her stitches and Steve followed Vivian in silence.

Steve was brave enough to break the ice

"So can I ask you a question?"

"Depends what" Vivian replied curtly,

"About before you met Alice."

"It's none of your business" she answered using her own key card to open the lab doors, to an empty room "Where's Dr Banner and Stark?" she asked figuring they would be here well before she was,

"Fury wanted to see them" Steve watched Vivian put her glasses on and looked at yesterday's notes while leaning on the pod "Alice said you had stolen money from someone...why?" Vivian kept her back to the Captain and blatantly ignored him, so he thought he'd ask a different question "You're British? Is England nice?"

This just tipped Vivian over the edge; she turned round still leaning on the pod "Why do you even want to know?"

Steve could tell she was a little angry

"I just wanted to get to know you if we're going to be working together"

"I don't want to get to know you Mr Rodgers. My past stays where its suppose to, in the PAST!" she snapped slamming her hand onto the pods metal shell, it flashed brightly as steam gushed out and Vivian vanished into the pod and it snapped shut behind her '_O shit'_ the interior of the pod was oddly cushioned on one side acting like a chair, the other lit up as several screens opened showing all different kinds of data, "HEY CAP YOU STILL YOU THERE?" she shouted at the top of her lungs, there was a muffled yes from the other side "GO GET DR BANNER OR STARK!" she ordered, calmly looking through the data before her and scribbling parts down on the back of the yesterdays work. "Who says losing my temper isn't a good thing?" looking at what Vivian assumed was a control panel saw several buttons all of the same colour and its human instinct 'if there is a button you don't know what it does you press it' and so she did pressing the first button on the small panel

An automatic voice spoke to her **"activating thrusters"**

**"**Thrusters? O dear" the whole thing shook violently as she felt the pod lift off the ground and straight into the ceiling with a thud then gravity kicked it and brought it back down with an even louder crack, the pod had rolled backwards on its way back down leaving poor Vivian dazed and upside down in a very uncomfortable position.

The sound of knocking on the pod brought her too "can you hear me? Are you alright?" Dr Banner asked

"YES" Vivian responded slowly and loudly "the bloods ran to my head though"

"What did you do?"

"Pressed a button"

"When can you not cause trouble?" Tony shouted at her,

"Shut up you fat flatulent git" she cursed back trying to scramble right way up, groaning as she checked her trusty tablet was intact.

CLANK; CLANK; BANG; BANG

it sounded like someone was trying to play the drums on the pod and the noise just resonated through the pod,

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Payback's a bitch and so am I!"

"ALICE!" Vivian found a lose wire under the control panel and plugged it into her tablet, scrolling through pages of data till she found was she looking for, " Satellite from days of old, lead me to your access code " she hummed "Will all bystanders please step away from the space pod as it might explode"

More banging sounded from the outside

"Are you mad?" That was Cap, panicking about everything,

"We're all a little mad" she stated wisely "exploration, experimentation, exclamation, detonation" she covered her ears as the hatch to the pod flew upwards towards the ceiling, it clattered loudly more so for Vivian since she was still in the pod when the door hit the pod and ricocheted off onto the floor, "I COME IN PEACE!" she announced loudly emerging from the pod slightly dusty of the smoke.

* * *

As soon as I heard Vivian had gotten herself trapped in the pod I saw my opportunity for payback,

"Out of the way please y'all I can get her out." I picked up a large metal pipe that had become dislodged from somewhere when Vivian did the inevitable and pushed a button and hit the side of the pod so hard that it and the pipe vibrated,

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Came the distinctly British voice from inside the pod

"Payback's a bitch and so am I!" I explained hitting the pod a few more times for good measure

"ALICE!"

"How is this supposed to get her out?" Stark asked

"Simple she'll get so annoyed by the sound she'll try her very best to get out of there so she can strangle me" I explained

"Will all bystanders please step away from the space pod as it might explode"

"Are you mad?" Steve said

"We're all a little mad" Vivian said from inside the pod "exploration, experimentation, exclamation, detonation" next thing any of us knew was that the pod flew upwards towards the ceiling, it clattered loudly more so for Vivian I guessed since she was still in the pod when the door hit the pod and ricocheted off onto the floor, "I COME IN PEACE!" she announced loudly emerging from the pod slightly dusty from the smoke,

"So how many buttons did you press to get yourself out?" I asked

"A few but found a wire and hooked it up to my tablet and that's how I got out"

Stark, Steve and Dr Banner all looked at Vivian like she was mad, "uh huh well try not to break anything kay?" I said dropping my pipe and heading out of the lab. Pods from outer space weren't really my thing

"Like you say I make no promises" Vivian smiled

"Right well I think I'm gonna go see what our glorious leader knows about our visitor from outside space. Boys" I nodded curtly to Stark and Banner as I left the lab with Steve on my heels. I had the feeling Fury had told him to keep an eye on me because Viv was preoccupied with the pod I was still a bit of a liability.

I found Director Fury in his usual post surveying all around him with the aide of his screens,

"Miss Winters. What can I do for you today?"

"I need to know all you know about Apocalypse"

"I don't know much more than you" Fury said

"Well that's a big ol lie right there. For one I'd never heard of him before y'all told me so I'm willing to bet that y'all know a hell of a lot more than you're tellin mel" I said resoloutely crossing my arms over my chest

"This is why we brought you in" Fury said

"Cause I'm stubborn?"

"Because you don't back down. From the data we've collected so far and the information we already had all we know at this point is his end game. The complete enslavement of the human race"

"Yeah that's not happening" I laughed, "so how does he plan on enslaving us all"

"He takes four people of promenance and brainwashes them into his 'horsemen' and uses them to enslave or destroy humanity"

"Right well then we should probably find out who he'll go after and try to save them or something. I'm new at this 'super best friends' crap so you're gonna have to point me in the right direction here"

"No you've pretty much got it down pat. We need to find out who he'll go after and try our best to prevent his end game"

"Right well call me when you have something. In the mean time I'm going gun shopping. You coming with?" I asked Steve

"Um sure"

"Quick question. If I have one of those ID badges can I skip the three day waiting period for guns?" I asked Fury, "You know since you're the government and all"

"Unfortunately not" Fury said

"Damn what's the point of being the goverment if you can't get a gun without having to wait" I mumbled leaving the room, "Right then now to find where I can get guns illegally"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Steve said

"Of course I'm sure!" I said making my way through the base, "And since you're native you can show me all the rough places with illegal arms trades!" I said happily linking arms with Steve and dragging him out with me.

* * *

After being freed from the pod Vivian had been lectured how the boring rules of 'Health and safety' and now sat on top of the pod her legs dangling through the hatch, several screens in front of her as well as her tablet on her lap,

"It's getting late your friends already gone home"

Vivian looked up Dr Banner then back down at the clock on her tablet "o its later than I thought...o well I'll go when I've finished this"

Dr Banner inspected some of her notes on the desk, one of which was a bible "I didn't peg you as the religious type"

Vivian minimized one of the screens so she could see him "I'm not, I just remember the story of the Apocalypse from the bible "so I'd assume he's going to find his horsemen and bring round the apocalypse."

Banner leafed through a long list of names "What's this list of names?"

"Ah! I forgot about those. I should really take them to Fury. I found a file containing a lot of profiles of people on earth in the pods memory, I have a feeling Apocalypse might try and recruit them"

The doctor was impressed how diligently the young girl worked despite all the trouble and fire that followed her,

"I can take for you; I know you're not in Fury's good books."

Her face lit up

"Thank you, that's a big help. I don't do well with authority figures" she laughed,

"I've noticed" he chuckled back, "try not to stay up to late" he advised leaving her to her work.

**"Access denied"**

**"**I beg your pardon" Vivian frowned at the computer

"**Access denied"**

"oh bloody**"** she cursed, clambering back into the pod "All this modern technology and they still have reset buttons, now it should be behind this chair" Vivian tried to pry the curved chair off the pod but it didn't budge, a small red lever at the side of the chair with the words **'**eicio eiectum' on the top, "What the does that mean? One way to find out" she pushed the lever down raising the chair a little and steam started to raise from underneath "O dear." Vivian clambered out of the pod rather quickly as the chair was launched out of the pod and into the ceiling, a parachute flared out of the back and it hit the floor with a loud bang "Three dints in the ceiling in one day. I have to stop wreaking the place" peering back into the pod just to make sure it was safe before climbing back in to rewire the whole device so she could access all the files and see if the systems could locate Apocalypse. This was going to be a long night.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Seven:**

Vivian didn't come home till the early hours of the next morning. I was only up because sleep seemed to be evading me, "Viv? You ok?" I asked poking my head around her room door

"You look like a vampire victim in that nightdress" she mumbled into her pillow before she nodded off

"Just don't push yourself too hard" I said leaving the room and attempted to get some sleep myself.

It was five am before I nodded off and at seven someone was knocking on the door yelling my name, "Alright. Alright keep your panties on!" I yelled back I trooped to the door and flung it open not happy in the least about being woken this way,

"Uh ..." Steve stood in the doorway in a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans but I had no appreciation for the view this early in the morning

"Spit it out" I ordered

"Director Fury wants to see you" Steve said jumping a little at my tone of voice

"Fine let me get dressed" I went back to my room and threw on an old pair of jeans, the first t-shirt I came across and my Dad's old hunting jacket along with some combat boots. If I had to fight I wouldn't be caught short again.

I walked along side Steve in stony silence until we reached SHIELDs heli pad, "Not that I'm ungrateful for the work but you'd best have one hell of a reason for getting me up this early" I scowled

"Yes actually I do" Fury said untempered by my bad mood, "I need you to go and warn some people about Apocalypse's arrival. There was a list of people in the pods computer database and some of these people are very high profile"

"Aye sir" I said giving a mock salute as Fury handed me a page with a list of names,

"You'll find these people in Westchester which is just outside the city"

"Right well off I go"

I figured the best idea was to take a cab out and so after managing to get one at eight am I found myself outside a huge mansion with sprawling grounds that put my ancestral home to shame,

"Miss Winters?" An English voice asked. I turned around to be greeted by a man in a wheelchair

"Professor Xavier I assume" I shook hands with the man, I'd actually read up on him in the cab. He was a mutant and a very powerful one. I had nothing against mutants I mean so what they'd jumped a few evolutionary steps. In a few generations time men won't have nipples anymore and that'll be a mutation,

"Indeed. Director Fury informed me of your arrival. Shall we go in?"

"After you" I followed the professor to his study and sat down in front of his desk, "Fury told you why I'm here?" I asked getting right to the point

"Yes. Apocalypse has returned"

"And we have reason to believe some of your people may be in danger"

"May I see your list?"

"Of course" I handed my list to the professor and he looked over it. While he was looking over the list my phone started ringing in my pocket

_**# Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as parklife #**_

"Sorry I have to get this" I flipped open my phone only to have Vivian yell on the other end,

_"You are never going to believe who just landed!"_

"Um landed"

_"Thor!"_

"Wait. Wait. Wait. As in the Norse God?"

_"Yes! You have to get back here! This is a once in a life time situation"_

"Alright let me finish up here and don't let him leave" I hung up and turned my attention back to Xavier,

"Thank you for bringing this list to my attention" Xavier said, "can I just ask. You don't seem the type to join SHIELD -"

"So why am I there? Well it's simple. It was either this or federal prison and orange isn't my colour" I laughed, "Well if you'll excuse me"

"Of course. Someone will show you out" I nodded politely and left the study. Sure enough someone was waiting outside the door.

He was shorter than I was and smelled strongly of cigar smoke,

"Professor wants me to show you out" he said in his gruff manner

"Fine by me" so I followed the man back outside and down the road a little until I could hail a cab back to the city

* * *

Vivian had two hours sleep before she rose again like a zombie and dragged herself back to the base, yawning loudly as she sauntered into the lab where Dr Banner and Stark were already working "morning'"

"You forgot to get dressed this morning" Stark mocked, gesturing to Vivian's three sizes too big band hoodie which made her look even smaller, she ignored Tony and clambered straight into the pod "someone's cranky"

"Working!" she retorted loudly and plugged her tablet into the servers where the chair had been,

"Hey I have a question for you" Stark said peering into the pod, "how did you remove the chair? You're not one for upper body strength"

"Eject lever" Vivian carried on her work from the previous night, rewriting a program from an alien dialog was proving to very difficult but Vivian enjoyed the challenge.

The lights in the lab flickered so did her screen "WHOSE MESSING WITH THE POWER?" she questioned rising out of the pod angrily, Stark and banner looked at each when a loud crack of thunder echoed through the Heli carrier,

"I'd say he's back"

"Whose back?"

"The god of thunder" Tony replied,

"I asked who it was not please name a Kiss track"

"He means Thor" Banner explained,

"O THAT god of thunder, why didn't you say so" Vivian climbed out of the pod and followed the two men out of the lab not before making a quick phone call "You are never going to believe who just landed!"

_"Um landed" _Alice sounded confused

"Thor!"

"_Wait. Wait. Wait. As in the Norse God?"_

"Yes! You have to get back here! This is a once in a life time situation"

"_Alright let me finish up here and don't let him leave"_

Thor was a tall well built man with blonde hair and he was rather attractive, though not as godly as she'd expected,

"It is good to see you both again" he greeted Banner and Stark warmly, then noticed Vivian stood next to the doctor and patted her on the head "who's this small one?"

Not a good time to patronise a very cranky British woman, one booted foot straight into the God of thunders crotch: God or not that'll hurt any man. "Do not patronise me blondie" she hissed,

Thor was clearly amused and messed up her hair vigorously more knocking her glasses at an angle doing so "You are like a ferret, small and attempting to be ferocious" he carried on laughing loudly, Vivian had had enough turning on her heels dragging the nearest chair back over to the god and took a swing at his head

Thor took a little step backwards still laughing "I am surprised you can lift that"

"I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Vivian was usually a quiet enough girl but her temper when she was tired was something to be feared, swinging the chair at Thor who just dodged and laughed then decided take the chair from her with force, Dr Banner stopped in now she was unarmed,

"This is Vivian Rose, a new addition to the science department" he introduced calmly placing a hand on the girls shoulder as he led her out of the room "Why don't we get some coffee?"

"I'll fill you in later" Tony added amused by the small woman's outburst.

"Sorry" Vivian mumbled rubbing her eye with her sleeve as she yawned,

"Don't worry about it. I can understand" Bruce led her to the cafeteria where she took root at a table and let her head hit the table top, the doctor sat opposite her and placed a cup of hot coffee in front of her,

"Thank you" she slurred sitting back up wrapping her hands around the cup to absorb the warmth,

"How far have you got with the pod?" he asked drinking his own coffee,

"I want to get it finished last night but I got frustrated with the translations, so I called it a night but I'll have to figure it out eventually" she explained draining the cup of its hot contents. It took a few seconds for the effects of the caffeine to kick in "I feel better now" Vivian stretched darting off to get another cup of coffee and a bagel "Thanks Doctor Banner" she grinned,

"You can call me Bruce" he flashed his charming smile at her,

"You know what I think I will" they left the canteen and headed back towards the lab.

* * *

When I got back I was met by a very amused Tony Stark, who happened to be in the company of a very attractive blonde man,

'Hi I'm Alice" I said holding out my hand

"Thor" the blonde said kissing my outstretched hand

"Oh so you're the god of thunder?"

"Yes I am. Are you another scientist?"

"Oh no I'm here because it was this or federal jail for stealing from him" I said jerking a thumb at Tony

"Ah my friend you were bested by a female it happens to us all. Especially when they are as beautiful as you my dear"

"Flattery will get you everywhere" I laughed

"Your accent is strange to me" Thor said

"That's because I'm from the south" Thor looked confused, "Well in America there are Northern States like New York and Southern States like South Carolina where I'm from" I explained, "And depending on where you're from you sound different"

"I see. So where was the ferret from?" Thor asked Tony who laughed rather loudly,

"Ferret" I asked

"Vivian" Stark explained

"You call her a ferret?" I asked Thor

"She is small like one and she pretends to be ferocious like a lion" he laughed good naturedly

"I can just imagine that went down well" I said sarcastically

"She threw a chair at him" Stark laughed

"Yeah she didn't have a lot of sleep last night and she's usually alright about her height. I mean being small gets her into air vents, she can steal billionaire's wallets without them noticing" I said with a pointed look at Stark,

"I guess I should go see her make sure she's alright. You should probably come as well, say sorry for making fun of her height" I said linking arms with Thor and walking back to the lab, "Hello Dr Banner is she around?" I asked Bruce, who was analysing something under a microscope,

"In the pod" he said

"Vivian?" I said softly tapping on the side of the pod, "Are you in there?" Vivian's head poked up from the pod and she took one look at Thor and scowled,

"You again"

"I heard you threw a chair at him" I said as nicely as I could,

"He deserved it. He called me small! Stupid god" she went back to her work and I went back to Thor,

"She gets a little testy about her height" I explained

"Doctor Banner the Director wants to know if you've made any progress on the samples you collected" Steve said coming into the lab

"Oh hello Steve" I said offhandedly, "So what's it like being the god of thunder? Are you to blame for all those lightening storms that have knocked off my power over the years?" I asked flirting shamelessly with Thor,

"Tell the director we're making progress with the language inside the pod" Bruce said trying to take Steve's attention off Thor and me,

"Of course Doctor" Steve said with a nod leaving the lab,

"Well I think I'm gonna go down to the firing range. You're welcome to come" I said to Thor,

"Another time perhaps" he kissed my hand again and left the lab,

"Don't let her overwork herself" I said to Bruce before leaving myself and heading down to the firing range.

Later that evening we were all gathered in the big room with all the screens and agents so Fury could go over all the intel we had, the people who we felt were at risk and Vivian, Stark and Bruce talked about breaking the code inside the pod.

When Fury had finished his presentation Thor, Vivian, Steve and I were all sitting in a little break room while the coffee brewed I was taking an interest in Thor and Vivian had managed to get her hands on a little water bottle she kept spraying me with whenever she deemed I was 'too close' to Thor

"It's like training a dog" she said "One way to win her back Cap, just walk around shirtless you'd have her constant attention" she said to Steve nodding along with herself

"Vivian! I'm not _that_ shallow" I defended myself

"Yeah that's why you're drooling over puny god over there and cap in his tight tights" Vivian scoffed

"Well I'm a red blooded female of course I look" I said in attempt to salvage a reputation that had just been ripped to shreds

"Yes well you do that; I'll be makin friends with science and the computer in the mean time" Vivian said pouring herself a large mug full of coffee

"And of course the charming Dr Banner" I added, if she was going to get a jab in about me then I was going to get one in about her

"I dunno what you mean" she said her cheeks flushing a little with colour

"Of course not" I said pouring myself some coffee and stirring lots of sugar into it

I'll leave you to your ... blondes" Vivian hissed at me with a glare

"They _do_ have more fun" I said sipping the black liquid in my mug

"So the rumours say" Vivian said disbelievingly

"Well I guess I'll just have to find out for myself" I said sitting back down at the table

"Have fun with that" Vivian said patting Steve on the shoulder

"Wait what?" Steve asked clearly confused

"Sometimes I wonder how dense you can be" Vivian said shaking her head, "and with that I'm going to leave Alice to educate you ..."

"School is in boys" I laughed making Vivian cringe

"I'm going to leave now may the odds be in your favour cap" Vivian said leaving the small break room,

"So who'd like to help me test my theory?"

"I'd be happy to offer my assistance" Thor said

"Well then let's go test the theory" I said linking arms with him once again and leaving the base


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight:**

"Home early for once" Vivian yawned opening the door to their apartment, "Alice-" Vivian trailed off when she heard suspicious noises coming from her friends room and cringed "Lovely" storming off into her own room to change, grabbing a flask then leaving again locking the door on the way out. Arriving back at Shield she bumped into Steve who had been deep in thought, "What has been heard cannot be unheard" she stated staggering away to the canteen to fill up her flask,

"Vivian didn't you go home?" a red haired woman asked her from a nearby table sat with another agent,

"Hi miss Romanoff, Mr Barton" she greeted screwing the lid onto her flask "certain circumstances arose so I'm back, going head back to the lab I have loads of work to finish"

"That's all I've seen you ever do, kiddo. Work and swing chairs at people" Barton joked,

"Only things I'm good at that and gambling"

She left the canteen and entered the lab, chucking her bag on the floor making Dr Banner who had been concentrating on something jump.

"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you"

"I didn't expect you back so soon, is something wrong?" he asked taking his glasses off,

"Alice is 'making friends' with that stupid god in our apartment, I can put up with a lot of things that isn't one of them." she sighed "so I'm back to work"

The pair worked in silence, a few hours passed and Vivian noticed a pattern in the alien dialect and putting the new knowledge with her collection of notes. She stood up in the pod "hey I've finally-" she stopped mid sentence when she noticed that the doctor was no longer present , climbing out of the pod mostly to stretch her legs "He must have gone to bed, shit it's late again"

"You shouldn't talk to yourself"

Her instant reaction was to grab the nearest chair and swing it towards the unfamiliar voice

"Whoa calm down" said a tall thin man with a ridiculous helmet and black hair creeping out of the bottom. Vivian studied his face, he wasn't unattractive with his angular jaw and well defined cheek bones not to mention startling green eyes but something told her not to trust him even if he was attractive,

"Who the hell are you?" she frowned keeping a firm grip on the chair "Actually let me guess, stupid helmet, wearing a curtain and silly armour. I'd say some form of friend or relative to that stupid thunder god"

"My my we are smart" he said with an underlying patronizing tone "my name is Loki"

"What do you want?"

"I need a scientist and since you're the only one around we'll go for you" he smiled touching her heart with a strange sceptre, it felt like her mind was trying to shut itself down.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" she shouted swinging the chair at Loki, it clipped his helmet sending it crashing onto the tiled floor. As much as Vivian fought the darkness it took over eventually she could see and hear a voice constantly whispering in her head.

"Let's go shall we?"

"Director we have a problem" Black widow announced walking into the main control room with Barton at her side,

"Care to explain?" Nick Fury asked turning to face the Russian spy,

"Loki's back" she stated passing across a helmet with two large curved horns at the front "I found this in the lab and I can't find Vivian Rose"

Nick frowned "Alert Miss Winters and Thor, and assemble the others."

It didn't take for the avengers and Alice to assemble in the meeting room,

"What do you mean missing? Is Starks wallet lighter again? No? Well I'm sure she'll turn up if there's nothing in it for her and if there is then it's been nice knowing you lot" Alice fired a few questions making a joke of the situation

"We think Loki has her" Fury stated, placing a strange helmet on the table "This was found in the lab"

Alice rose to her feet and grabbed Thor's arm

"Well in that you're going to help me get my friend back from your whiny emo brother and there will be no discussion on the matter"

"But of course, my dear"

* * *

As soon as I found out that Vivian was missing and it wasn't by choice I headed straight home to grab all the ammunition I had stored. Steve and Thor came with me and both were astounded by the amount of guns I had stored in various locations around the apartment,

"You guys have only been here a week" Steve exclaimed

"I know I wanted to have more but there's that stupid three day waiting period. I couldn't even take half my guns from Vegas and don't get me started on how hard it is to find a kalisnakof. Thankfully though I have Daddy's shotgun" I said loading said shotgun with buck shots. Guaranteed to send whoever is on the receiving end of the bullet into a world of hurt, "So explain to me what exactly has your baby brother so butthurt" I said tipping some armour piercing rounds into my bag,

"He was a frost giant whom my Father adopted. He was raised as my Fathers son and as my brother but he resented that I would be king and he wouldn't"

"So he wants to be supreme ruler of all Mousedom what a little bitch" I checked all my guns and fished out my old hunting knife from the box under my bed,

"Why do you keep all your weapons underneath your bed?" Thor asked

"In case I need to shoot and or stab whoevers in bed with me" I said sweetly

"I am glad then that you have not stabbed and or shot me" Thor said making Steve look from him to me with a look of confusion and betryal on his face,

"You two have been -"

"Shacking up" I finished, "and we can bitch about the fact that my moral compass lies between my legs later. Right now I have a friend in need and if Disney has taught me anything that is a friend indeed. So round up the super best friend and let's go"

"You look like you're going to war" Steve said

"Funny I thought I was"

* * *

Loki stood before Apocalypse Vivian kneeling beside him "I ask you to bring a scientist and you fetch me a child"

"I assure you she can get the job done"

Apocalypse stared down at the woman that had tried to attack him "You will take responsibility if she fails"

"But of course" Loki bowed as the alien left the room, the trickster soon found himself on the floor unable to move his body, "You – how?"

Vivian loomed over him a taser in one hand

"Magic" she smirked rubbing the back of her neck "if you were a human 300,000 volts would have killed you. Lucky you" Vivian looked around the place Apocalypse picked as a lair, it was an abandoned warehouse "I was expecting somewhere nicer"

"What do you expect to do?"

"Make a phone call" Vivian stated pulling out her phone "Hey Stark, I'm in one piece and I have Loki. just trace this call" Vivian sat crossed legged on Loki's back and repeatedly prodded him with the high volt taser "I wonder how long it'll take to send a God's body into shock or a coma...can gods go into comas? I love experiments"

"Shield has no place to hold me" Loki wheezed,

"Well I wonder about that. I can certainly make something or I can leave you to this maniac Alien he can turn you into one of his horsemen"

"I doubt that, he needs a scientist to build him a machine for that"

"Hmm, I suppose that was my job." Vivian's taser didn't shock Loki this time but backfired into her own, screaming loudly from the sudden pain rolling onto the floor

"It seems you cannot handle a small child" Apocalypse wasn't stupid he had probably noticed that Loki's magic had faded on her, having never been shocked before Vivian's body did actually go into shock, "I already have another scientist on hand, one less troublesome" with that both Apocalypse and Loki vanished from the room leaving Vivian slipping into unconsciousness on the floor.

'_I'll be darn lucky if I don't die'_

* * *

Stark was able to trace Vivian's call in less time than it would have taken SHIELD to according to Natasha,

"Well that's a good thing because if I know Viv she won't go down without a fight and that could have disasterous consequences"

"Why is she gonna throw a chair at Apocalypse?" Asked Clint

"Hey they're handy and every home has them" I argued

We reached the factory just in time to see Vivian collapse on the ground her body spazaming from what I could only assume to be a tazer related incident, "Viv you ok? Come on wake up!" I yelled. She didn't respond, "Vivian I'm taking all your whiskey and selling your tablet for a vibrating bed like you get in cheap motels" that did the trick

"Fuck no you're not! I put up with you 'making friends' enough already!" She yelled, "and ow my everything"

"Come on upsy daisy let's help out here and then you can get a physical from the lovely Dr Banner" Vivian went bright red making me laugh, "Alrighty then. I think the butthurt one deserves our undevided attention don't you?"

"Oh I so agree with you"

"Then let's go get em!"

* * *

Vivian had been taken to the med bay on the helicarrier; Dr Banner was the one in charge of her physical,

"I'm fine really" she tried to persuade,

Bruce looked at her over his glasses bemused

"Is that so? Trying moving your arm then" Vivian could barely wiggle her thumb let along her whole arm, "out of curiosity what voltage was that taser set to?"

Vivian laughed nervously

"Three hundred thousand volts"

The doctor rubbed the bridge of his nose above his glasses "that could have killed you. Not to mention it's illegal to own a taser with those capabilities"

"Everything about me is illegal, I'm not even registered to be in this country" she laughed slowly gaining feeling back in her hands.

"I suppose that's true"

"O yeah I forgot to mention, I think Apocalypse has his eye on a Stephen Strange ... if I heard correctly"

"I'll pass the message on, **you** need to focus on recovering" Banner advised, watching his patient concentrate on moving her fingers,

"I'll be fine by morning" she announced boldly, "Now I've cracked that damn code I can start on the reprogramming"

He sighed again

"You will rest, until I deem you healthy"

Vivian stared at him as though he were mad

"What? But I'll be fine. Honest!"

"We will see. Now rest" he ordered leaving her to silence of the med bay.

"I hate resting" she huffed "I have work to be done."

* * *

"I hear the arsonist is on bed rest till the doc says she's fit for duty" Stark said to me one day while I was in shields lab picking somethings up for Vivian she might not be able to go into the lab to work but she was determined to do it in the apartment

"Yeah she's cranky as hell though. Keeps making a big ol fuss about the doc being unfair" I said picking up the sheets she'd told me to

"Wasn't that tazer of hers set to three hundred thousand volts" Stark asked

"Yes sir it was" I finished picking up Vivian's things and headed out of the labs bumping into none other than Doctor Banner on my way out

"Oh hi Doc. Viv thought she left her tablet and I was just in looking for it" I lied

"Uh huh" Banner crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me over the tops of his glasses

"Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it" I said brushing past, "Come by the apartment some time. I'm sure Viv isn't taking it half as easy as she's supposed to" I said as an after thought before walking away.

I only got so far before bumpping quite literally into Steve, "oof where are y'all coming from today?" I said picking myself and Vivian's papers up

"Can we talk" Steve asked

"Oh nothing good ever comes from that sentance" I said stuffing the papers into my bag, "Alright then lead the way" I followed Steve to the small break room and sat down at the table crossing one leg over the other, "You wanted to talk so talk"

"I know I've only known you a week but the thing is -" Steve was unable to finish his sentance

"The thing is what? Spit it out I hate when people don't finish sentances" I said scowling at Steve

"I couldn't finish the sentance because I don't know how"

"Well I'm not one for science but I know it has something to do with the vibrations of your voice box and that makes the sound" I sighed, "so come on out with it"

"I'm not great when it comes to talking to women but I - uh - like you"

"That's adorable but I'm not one for monogomy" I said standing up, "and you clearly are. I'm shaking up with as Viv puts It 'the puny god' because when this is all over he's leaving and I'll probably never see him again" I explained, "You live in New York and I'll see you all the time so that wouldn't work"

"Have you ever been 'monogomus' as you put it before?"

"Not since I was sixteen and for a damn good reason. I will never be someone's 'woman' as long as I live" I said brushing past him and out of the base. Vivian would be wanting her files and if I stick around any longer she mightn't get them


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Nine:**

Vivian was not going to let bed rest get the better of her, so she was still working which involved making fun new bullets for Alice. Though 'bed rest' was more like 'let's sit on the floor and turn it into a workshop.

"You should be resting." Alice said from the doorway,

"I'm not doing much movement that's resting enough, when you go to shield pick up my notes will you? I can make a start on software but I'll need my work if you'd be so kind."

"Don't blow yourself up"

"I'll try not to"

After Alice left Vivian was consumed by explosives, lycopodium powder was a favourite to include since it makes a bang and also blinds people. The time passed rather quickly, when she heard the apartment door open and close,

"Welcome back!" she hollered adding another finished bullet to a box.

"I could have sworn I told you to rest" that voice sent a shiver down her spine,

"Doctor ... I am resting. See no strenuous movement occurring," she smiled awkwardly, Bruce entered the room closing the door behind him, she noticed a wad of paper in his hand "Ah! Alice did remember my notes, great I can carry on" it took some force to wake her legs up as she struggled to her feet Bruce showed surprising strength to lift her onto the bed,

"You **will** rest" he said sternly,

"But-"

"**NO**!" that tone of voice made her quiver "do you not care about your health?"

Vivian shrugged "It's never been an imperative concern"

The doctor arched a brow

"Does anyone else care about your health?"

She shrugged again

"You apparently but heck that's a first"

"Yes I do care about your health" he stated seriously,

"Well yeah, you're a doctor, that's your job though" she waved off his concern with talk of jobs again,

"Outside of my job as a doctor. I do care about you and your safety."

Vivian could feel her cheeks flushing, she was about to reply and Alice fell through the door grinning like a Cheshire cat

"Aw that's cute"

Vivian's temper bubbled again "Christ sake Alice! trying sorting out your own problems before meddling in other peoples love lives"

'_o what did I just say?'_

Alice sniggered at those words

"Love life you say"

Vivian's face went scarlet

"NO! I didn't mean it like that!"

Bruce looked at her, '_no don't look at me please'_ she pleaded in her head

"Then how did you mean it?"

Vivian couldn't muster any words and cocooned herself in the covers, rolling off the bed and under it. '_this is why I hate people'_ she thought pulling the covers tighter around her,

"Viv-"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shouted trembling from a mixture of embarrassment and anger "just leave me alone"

'_I'm stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid'_

* * *

Once I'd managed to get Dr Banner out of the apartment I tried to talk to Vivian but she slammed the door in my face,

"I guess I should have been sneakier with my eavesdropping" I sighed. I noticed Vivian had left some new bullets out so I thought I'd go test them out,

"Back again?" Natasha asked

"Yeah Vivian made me some new bullets and I wanna see what they do"

"Actually I wanted to talk to you. It's so rare I get to talk to another girl who isn't interested in what Justin Bieber is doing"

"I tend to stay away from people like that" I cringed visibly, "So what did you want to talk about?"

"How you seem to have two men running after you when you've only been here a week"

I hung my head and let out a long drawn out sigh,

"Has Steve asked you to talk to me and try to win me round to the ways of monogamy?"

"Nah he's tried talking to Banner and Stark about it though"

"One Stark is knows for being a playboy and two I highly doubt someone who purposfully secludes himself is the person you want to talk to about changing a girls priorities"

"On that rather sour note. Is it true you're hitting our resident deity like the angry fist of said deity?"

"Yeah actually I am"

"I need to know. Professional curiosity and all. What's it like?"

"I've been around a few times and I'm really not ashamed to say my moral compass lies between my legs but damn it's like nothing I've ever experienced before" I said, "the first time my legs didn't work for a good hour after"

"Wow" Natasha fanned herself with her hand,

"Yeah it's that good" I laughed, "you know I've never really talked like this with anyone other than Viv and usually I have to censor the shit out of it. She doesn't like hearing the gory details"

Natasha and I talked for a good hour about my sexual escapades and all the guys she'd beat up for shield until she was called away by her other half.

I decided to head back to the apartment to see if Vivian would talk to me but I got side tracked by Steve, "Look it's really admirable that you want to find a nice 21st Centry gal and settle down and make enough babies to populate a small island but I'm not your girl"

"Just hear me out" Steve said, "I talked to Dr Banner and he said I should let you come around in your own time and if it wasn't to be it wasn't to be. Then I talked to Stark and he said I should make a 'physical presentation'"

"So you want to what! Make a presentation?"

"Yes" and he took off his shirt

* * *

Vivian heard Alice and Banner leave the apartment, her stomach started to grumble loudly after checking the cupboards to find them empty "We haven't been food shopping yet" she sighed remembering that the pair had spent most of their time at shield and eating out. Vivian staggered back into her room to change into more suitable street clothes , jeans, platforms and a strap top. Knowing she wouldn't get far with her legs the way they were she decided to play doctor, she opened a box of syringes and filled one with a small dose of unmarked liquid before injecting it into her arm. Needles didn't bother Vivian as they did Alice, she had grown up seen people inject themselves with unknown substances in bizarre places.

"There we go, best take one with me just in case" she placed a needle and the small pot of liquid into a separate small case and put it in her bag before leaving.

The sun beamed down on the New York streets, Vivian hadn't seen much of the weather since she'd been cooped up in the lab for a few days. Tourists you see everywhere, but in this day and age you don't often see them suited and holding a huge paper map in the middle of the high street.

"A map like that won't help you in New York" she mused to the smartly dressed man, who held the map to one side to see the source of the voice,

"I haven't been here in a few months and I already feel like a stranger" he chuckled folding the map up,

"Where were you heading I can at least point you in the right direction"

"Magnolia bakery"

"I'm heading that way myself, it's not too far from here actually" Vivian helped the lost man to his destination only to regret her good deed of the month. Several familiar faces were gathered at a table,

One of them rose to greet them

"General Ross, I was starting to worry" the red haired woman looked at Vivian "Miss Rose, what are you doing here?"

"Hi miss Romanoff" she greeted back,

"This young lady helped me find my way here. I didn't know who two were acquainted." two other men were sat at the table one she recognised as Clinton Barton and the other she preferred she didn't know,

He stood up with a broad smile and pulled Vivian into a hug

"My little girl it's been far too long" Vivian didn't return the awkward hug,

"Yes, father. It's been about eight years" she mumbled

"This is your daughter Rose? Must have been fate that she helped me"

Vivian ended up sitting at the table between Hawkeye and her father Earl Rose. Seemed her father was in America because he had been invited by Ross to see a new submarine that had been created and he was an old friend of Thaddeus Ross a general in the air force. And as it turned out Ross was a part of Shield, which explained why the two spies were there to escort them to the base were the ship was going to be docked.

Even though Vivian tried to worm her way out of the meeting she ended up back at Shield, since her father insisted since he hadn't seen her in so long.

'_I'm dead if Bruce catches me'_ she sighed walking in tow behind Ross,

"You look pale you okay?" Barton whispered,

She nodded back then quickly shook her head and tried to hide behind him, Doctor Banner, Alice and Thor were walking down the corridor.

'_I'm dead'_

"Dr Banner, it has been a while" Ross smiled shaking the doctors hand eagerly, he introduced General Rose to the trio,

"Rose. Is that not also the ferret's last name?" Thor enquired,

"Ferret?"

"O he means Vivian. one of the scientists here," Alice chipped in quickly,

General Rose brimmed with pride "Yes she is my daughter." he turned around to see her trying to remain hidden, "You never mentioned that Vivian,"

'_Great found'_ she thought miserable, coming out of Barton's shadow "you didn't ask" she mumbled avoiding Dr Banners angry stare,

"Thank you for looking after my daughter"

"We should get going Rose"

"Ah right so, well Vivian it was good to see you again." He smiled at patting her head like Thor had done some days before "you should come home some time your mother misses you"

'_O like hell she does' _she replied with a mumbled 'yeah' and watched him walk down the corridor with the two spies and the American general.

"Your father is much taller than you, ferret" Thor chuckled reaching out to pat her again but she slapped his hand away,

"That man is **not** my father" she hissed turning on her heels to walk away but found herself slumped on the floor her legs oozing with pain, '_good timing legs'_ she cursed finding her well prepared pick-up solution from her bag injecting it quickly into her arm. '_Ah pain be gone'_

* * *

"You know if you're trying to shoot up heroine you're doing it wrong" I said leaning against the wall above Vivian

"Yes well being electrocuted with three hundred volts messes with your nerves. Or so I've heard" Vivian said leaning against the wall

"I'm sure. Well yeah three hundred thousand volts would kill a normal person or so I've heard. The Doc seems to think you're a medical marvel. I'm sure he'd like to get his hands all over you" I said sliding down the wall to sit next to Vivian

"Yeah to strap me to a bed and not let me up again" Vivian said

"Oh I've done that before" I said nodding, "What a weekend"

"Your sexual escapades are none of my business" Vivian said

"Well do you want to hear about how Steve is trying to invest me in a life of monogomy?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah he went to Stark of all people for advice"

"He went to a known lothario for advice on how to get a girl to settle down?" Vivian was shocked

"I know! I mean how does that even compute" I said

"I guess he figured Stark knew about wild women" Vivian laughed, "who allow themselves to be strapped to beds for weekends"

"Hey don't knock it till you've tried it. Anyway how about we get out of here?"

"But what about Apocalypse" Vivian said

"I don't mean leave the state and change our names - again. I just meant here the base. Since I want to avoid Steve and you want to avoid Daddy dearest"

"Yeah let's get out of here" Vivian said pushing herself up off the wall - I extended my hand which Vivian took greatfully and leaning on my shouler we made our way through the base

"You'd better be heading home" Dr Banner said as we passed the lab

"Oh don't worry about it" Vivian said, "I won't be around any time soon. Not as long as _he's _here" she scowled

"Daddy dearest is a bit of a dick" I explained

"So as long as he's around I won't be"

"And you're avoiding Steve?" Dr Banner said to me

"That I am. He's a nice guy but I'm not nor have I ever been nor will I ever be a nice girl. And he deserves a nice girl"

"How about I decide what I deserve" a familiar voice said from behind me

"You can but honestly. It's not me. I'm not the kind of girl you take home to meet Mamma and Daddy claps you on the shoulder and says what a catch your gal is. I'm the one night stand you tell your friends about because she did a freaky thing with her mouth" I said, "I'm not girlfriend material. I'm just not" I shifted Vivian's weight and we headed off leaving both Steve and Doctor Banner behind us


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Ten:**

Two days passed since both Vivian and Alice had set foot on the shield base. Vivian was feeling a lot better physically but not so much mentally, she had give a lot of thought to just leaving again. Alice would be fine here without her, but Vivian hated being tied down to one place especially under orders.

Sure they'd been threatened with jail but so what? Wouldn't be the first time she been in a prison but last time she was there a few hours before she freed herself. She could leave go some place no-one would find her a place where her 'parents' would have no connections at all. The only thing that held her back was her work, it had been sometime since she had had a job that interested her so much and she got the chance to work with other like minded people: notably Dr Banner.

"It's not like they know where I live or anything. Guess I'll go back my work a visit." she sighed dressing before leaving her room to find Alice had already left.

She greeted several people that knew her and asked about the British marine general that had been here; apparently he had gone back to England yesterday. Vivian peered inside the laboratory to see a lack of scientists "must be in a meeting" she mumbled,

"If you are looking for the green one he's not here, he is with Fury and the iron man"

Vivian jumped a good foot in the air when Thor leaned over her

"Don't do that you stupid god" she hissed kicking his shin

He laughed and ruffled her curly hair

"You are full of energy, Ferret"

"DO NOT CALL ME FERRET!" she snapped loudly, "where's Alice, I'm not used to seeing you without her draped over your arm"

"She's been draped over more than just my arm" he added smirking at his previous ventures,

Vivian cringed at the unneeded image

"I didn't need to know that. You're just as bad as her"

He leaned against the door and smiled down at her

"Do I detect jealousy?"

"I peg your pardon? Don't be so conceited" she spat, putting her hand on his chest in fail attempt to push him away

"Then again you prefer the company of the angry green one, do you not feel endangered around him?"

"No!"

"I suppose you haven't seen the monster he really is, which would explain why you are not afraid"

Vivian put all the force she had into one well aimed slap to the god's face

"Dr Banner is no monster! And he's twice the man you'll ever be you stupid god!"

"Thor what are you doing?" Tony and Dr Banner interrupted the conversation before Vivian could lose her temper even more

"Ah green one!"

Vivian used the appearance of the other two avengers to retreat into the lab.

"You have a fan! Little ferret -" Thor had gone to pat her head when he noticed she'd gone "where did she go?"

Vivian ignored the outside banter and checked the pod the side was covered in spider webs which adjoined to the nearby ventilation shaft. "I haven't been gone that long, how did no-one notice a spider web this big?" Vivian fetched a chair and set it under the vent, just to get her a little boost as she jumped up to the vent, pulling the gate open.

"What's she doing?" Tony asked noticing that Vivian was half hanging out of the vent,

"How did the ferret get up there?"

Vivian used her years of practise to pull herself into the vent, her legs and back kept her firmly in place while she fiddled around to find her phone to use as a light

"Hello darlin'"

Vivian looked up from her phone to be greeted face to face with large white eyes and a mouth full of very sharp needle like teeth, two pairs of arms were posted next to her head and another pair reached for her face "You look delicious" the face grinned at her very hungrily

Vivian screamed and removed her feet from the vent which had been keeping her in place, she fell out of the vent and landed on the chair which slid in the opposite direction, she hit the floor and quickly shuffled as far away from the vent as possible and into a safe spot under the desk. The spider webs slithered off the pod and back into the vent.

She jumped even more when Banner knelt down in front of her hiding place

"Are you okay?"

"There was something in the vent!" she blurted out "It had like six leg-arm-things!"

"It was probably a spider" Stark announced,

"It was a person!" she snapped,

"Yeah because there are so many people that could fit into that vent"

"Perhaps they were the same size as the little ferret" Thor added joining in with the banter

"Just go alert Fury that there might be an intruder" Banner ordered sternly,

"Don't get angry now" Stark joked walking out of the lab with Thor.

Vivian sighed with relief and tugged on the doctor's sleeve "sorry" she mumbled keeping her gaze on the floor,

"Don't worry about it. Are you sure you're okay?"

* * *

I left Vivian alone for a couple of days after meeting Daddy dearest in shield. I didn't bring anyone over either figuring she wouldn't enjoy the company,

"Where's the arsonist?" Stark asked on the second day she didn't come in,

"She's at home. Remember three hundred thousand volts. Bed rest all that" I told him I was only in myself to test out the new guns I'd finally been able to get. Stupid waiting period,

"Yeah but that didn't stop her before" Stark said leaning against the partition

"Yeah well after the Doc was 'disapointed' in her she kinda took it to heart and has sort of taken his advice" I said loading some bullets into my .44 and taking aim at the stupid paper target.

As always I managed to hit the parts that would cause the most damage but not kill right away. Of course Stark had something to say about it,

"What's all that about? Can't you make a kill shot?"

"It's better to cause the target pain than to kill him right away" I said, "I shoot you in the shoulder then dig my finger in there you're gonna be in a world a hurt"

"I'm sure" Stark laughed

"Wanna test the theory?" I asked aiming my gun at the target again this time hitting it right between what would have been its eyes, "What was that about a kill shot? I learned to shoot young. I can bring down a 200lb buck from 500 yards" I said, "Now don't you have some meeting to go to? About Apocalypse and the puny gods butthurt brother wanting to be the supreme ruler of all mousedom?"

"Mousedom?" Stark raised an eyebrow but when I reloaded my gun he just shrugged and left

"You're a really good shot. Almost as good as Hawkeye" a familiar voice made me jump. I had no idea I wasn't alone anymore,

"Shit don't do that to a body!" I said hitting Steve as hard as I could on the chest which admittidly hurt me more than him but I wasn't going to tell him that

"Sorry" he smiled and my legs almost gave out, "Stark told me I could find you down here"

"That Rat Bastard. I'll kick his ass for this" I muttered, "So what do you want? Here to make another case for monogomy?" I said setting my gun down and turning to face Steve fully.

Steve didn't say anything he just closed the gap between us putting his hands on the counter. His face was dangerously close to mine when - a scream rang through the ventillation system,

"Viv!" I yelled pushing Steve away and running for the lab. When I got there Banner had his arm around her shoulder and Vivian wasn't pushing him away so I decided to just let her be.

* * *

Vivian had calmed down considerably after the encounter in the vent; Bruce had sat quietly comforting her,

"I should get back to work" she muttered pulling away from the doctor.

"You're looking better than you did, I'll just have to keep an eye on you" Bruce put his glasses on watching Vivian prop a chair under the vent and vaulted back into it, "do you enjoy inuring yourself?" the doctor jumped when Vivian dropped back out of the vent upside down,

"Of course not, I'm seeing if our guest left anything behind" though besides a few cobwebs all that was left was a thick luminous green slime, which Vivian scooped into a think glass vial "I found some-"

Disaster after disaster today was not a good day. Everything shook violently for a few seconds, Vivian dropped out of the vent this time much more gracefully.

"What the hell was that?"

The sirens started to ring loudly, were they under attack? Steve almost broke the labs sliding door as he tried to open it forcefully,

"Trouble on the deck" he announced then ran off pulling his mask over his eyes,

"We best join the party"

The deck of the Helicarrier looked like a warzone; the shield army had the intruder surrounded. Black six arms, large white eyes and monstrously large teeth dripping with the same green slime Vivian had found in the vents, it wasn't as scary in broad daylight.

"Think he was hungry?" there were limbless bodies of soldiers scattered around and with the sight of blood smearing across the monsters face it was clear who had eaten them.

Things were looking well until the presence of a second intruder appeared riding through the air on a pale horse; a green suit that matched the rider's emerald locks,

"Famine, you've had your fun. The Lord wishes you to return." she ordered gaining the black things attention,

"I' haven't finished my meal" it argued licking its lips eagerly "Give me five more minutes Pestilence"

'_Pestilence...'_

"I do not have time for this!" a viscous olive smoke loomed around Pestilence like green clouds,

Vivian ran forward "RETREAT!" she screamed loudly, gaining only a few odd glances. The loud speakers cackled signalling someone was going to speak

"Retreat!" this time it was Nick Fury's voice and everyone took notice. Just in time as the green smoke descended down onto the carrier, not everyone got away unscathed those that been the furthest away were subjected to the strange mist. In all the confusion the two bizarre intruders fled.

"Why did we retreat?" Steve asked,

"Because Cap, did you see the crazy leather clad woman on the flying horse? That was 'Pestilence' one of the horsemen and do you know what the term 'Pestilence' means?" Vivian enquired bitterly, helping the med team with the injured,

"A plague?"

"Correct. That's why we ordered a retreat because Einstein, it's better to save as many people as possible from being infected by god knows what"

"I don't know what it is" Thor chipped in,

Vivian spat back "Well you're not a **proper **god are you?"

* * *

I was still in the firing range when the sirens sounded and Steve ran into the room,

"There's trouble on deck" he said almost ripping the door of it's hinges, "you should get somewhere safe. Whatever this thing is its been eating people"

"I'm helping" I said firmly grabbing some explosive rounds Vivian had made and loading my .44 and the 9mm I'd bought with them and following Steve upstairs.

I was faced with something I'd never seen before. It looked human or looked like it might have been human at one point. It had six arms counting its legs and long white teeth dripping some sort of green slime,

"The hell is that?" I yelled taking aim as the thing lunged for me. I managed to put a few rounds in its head but they didn't have any effect, "shit" I tried quickly to find the flash bang bullets but fumbled trying to load them with the sirens blaring and people yelling.

Thankfully Steve was on hand and when the spider - thing lunged for me again he jumped in front of me and the spider-thing bounced back off his shield,

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah thanks"

Steve managed to push back the spider-thing until its back was against the wall.

Things were looking well until the presence of a second intruder appeared riding through the air on a pale horse, a green suit that matched the riders emerald locks,

"Famine, you've had your fun. The Lord wishes you to return." she ordered gaining the black things attention,

"I haven't finished my meal" it argued licking its lips eagerly "Give me five more minutes Pestilence"

"_Pestilence__. That does not boad well for us"_

"I do not have time for this!" a viscous olive smoke loomed around Pestilence like green clouds,

Vivian ran forward "RETREAT!" she screamed loudly, gaining only a few odd glances. The loud speakers cackled signalling someone was going to speak

"Retreat!" this time it was Nick Fury's voice and everyone took notice. Just in time as the green smoke descended down onto the carrier, not everyone got away unscathed those that been the furthest away were subjected to the strange mist. In all the confusion the two bizarre intruders fled.

"Why did we retreat?" Steve asked, as we gathered up the injured and took them to the med bay

"Because Cap, did you see the crazy leather clad woman on the flying horse? That was 'Pestilence' one of the horsemen and do you know what the term 'Pestilence' means?" Vivian enquired bitterly, helping the med team with the injured,

"A plague?"

"Correct. That's why we ordered a retreat because Einstein, it's better to save as many people as possible from being infected by god knows what"

"I don't know what it is" Thor chipped in,

Vivian spat back "Well you're not a **proper **god are you?"

"Vivian!" I snapped, "This isn't the time for us to fight amongst ourselves. We have people who are badly injured and need our help"

"Since when did you become a team player?"

"Since the spider thing tried to eat me and Steve jumped in the line of fire!" I said, "Look Viv you're the smart one here. You're possibly the only one besides Banner that can find a way to stop this lunatic. I know you aren't a team player but damn it girl we need to do something here or we're all dead!"

"Alright. Alright. You don't hafta yell" Vivian laughed

"Sometimes its the only way to get through to you" I said with a smile making everyone else stare at Vivian and I strangely, "Oh and Thor? We're done k? Steve if I live through all this I might just take you up on your monogomy offer. Just don't hold your breath. If this is anything to go by we'll be lucky to survive the next two horsemen"

"Oh don't worry" Vivian said with a grin, "I think I have a plan"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Eleven:**

After the attack on the base by two of what we now knew to be Apocalypse's horsemen we were contacted by Professor Xavier whom I had gone to see earlier in the week about his people possibly being targets for Apocalypse. Apparently two of his students had gone missing and one we knew for sure was Pestilence,

"Her name was Polaris and she and another boy called Havoc had gone missing. Apparently they'd cut school and instead of returning with the other mutant teens who lived in Westchester they'd simply vanished,

"I know now of course what happened to them" Xavier said,

"And we're going to do everything in our power to get them back to you" Fury said sincerely

"You can count on it Sir" Steve said. We'd all gathered around in the main centre of operations where Fury was monitoring his many screens in the hope that the program Vivian and Banner had created would be able to find the missing teens.

I meanwhile wondered what use I would be against these horsemen. I mean when I faced the one we now knew to be a New York based mutant 'hero' known as Spiderman the bullets Vivian had designed didn't do a thing against him and since shooting things was really all I was good at I didn't see what possible use I would be against the other two or Loki or even Apocalypse himself when the time came to face him.

I played absentmindedly with the dog tags Steve had given me while I thought about what I could do in the event I did find myself faced with a horseman or Loki,

"Alright well with the facial recognition program created by Dr Banner and Miss Rose we should be able to identify the missing children if they appear anywhere in the world" Fury said as everyone else stood up and left,

"Miss Winters a moment" Xavier said once we left the main command centre

"Yes Professor?"

"I can't help but sense you're troubled about something"

"Well yes and no" so I told Xavier everything that had been running through my mind, "It's not like I have any lack of faith in my abilities. It's just what good are those abilities if they don't work against whatever I happen to be up against"

"It's like you say as long you have faith in your abilities they won't steer you wrong"

"Thanks" I said

"He has a point you know" Steve said leaning on a wall behind me, "As long as you have faith in your ability it won't fail when it counts"

"What's with all the grasshopper talk today? Do I just scream 'insecure' or something?"

"I was eavesdropping" Steve admitted,

"Yes well you can see my point. I mean y'all have something that makes ya special and me well I can shoot sure but you saw that thing yesterday my damn bullets had no effect"

"Then you just need better bullets" Steve said

"Yeah but those horsemen are human beings. Two of them are kids and that Parker is about the same age as me" I said "So I can't rightly kill em can I? Let's talk about something else" I sighed,

"Like what?"

"Like how the hell I'm going to adapt to this monogamy thing. I haven't had a 'boyfriend' since I was sixteen and it ended badly"

"What happened?"

"Let's just say it was the first and last time a man ever laid a hand on me" I said

"Well then how about I try and sell you on the ways of monogamy then?' Steve asked with a smile

"Sure and I can show you all the guns I keep under the bed. Along with, other things"

"But what about Vivian?"

"She won't be back for hours. Now stop stalling pretty boy and let's go!"

* * *

Vivian left the command centre with full intention of returning to the lab as soon as possible but was collared by Banner introducing her to a tall blue furry individual "this is Dr Henry McCoy"

Vivian shook his overly large hand "Nice to meet you, I'm Vivian Rose"

"I have heard many wondrous things about you Miss Rose. I was amazed that such a young lady would be interested in the ways of science. Though I am surprised that you're not a doctor" despite being over six foot in height and covered in fur, the intimidating doctor was very pronounced when he spoke,

"Aha, I'm no doctor" she laughed, "more like professional pyrotechnic. I just blow things up and cause endless problems for Dr Banner."

"There ya are Beast" A man with a distinctly Cajun accent called out joining the trio in the corridor, "Professor's lookin' for ya."

Beast nodded "I'll be right there" he turned back to the shield members "I wish you the best of luck with your research and it was a pleasure meeting you Miss Rose"

"Likewise Dr McCoy"

They went their separate ways; Vivian already had her tablet out sketching up a rough idea of one set of her plans,

We're going against people not tanks" Dr Banner reminded peering over her shoulder,

"People with tank like skin need to dealt with in the same manner," she replied setting the tablet on the desk when they reached the lab "Besides I'll only make it strong enough to take him off his feet"

"I'm glad you're on our side" Bruce took a closer look at the ammunition she had drawn up "Can I ask you how come you don't have a doctorate?"

Vivian was stood scrolling through the Helicarrier's inventory, seeing what she had to work with "I don't think there's a doctorate for 'blowing shit up'" she laughed "In all fairness, during my early university years I got into massive amounts of trouble in England involving M.I.6 it got complicated so I had to make tracks."

"So you've always been an arsonist?" She hadn't heard Stark sneak into the room,

"Yes and oddly enough it wasn't for arson" moving away from the screen Vivian located her phone "I have to go make a phone call I'll be back"

"Who you calling? You don't have friends"

Vivian stuck her tongue out at the billionaire "Hello, Merlin?"

Tony whispered to Banner "she's calling a wizard?" Bruce chuckled,

"_Well if it aint my favourite customer. What can I do ya for little lady?"_

"The usual, if you'd be so kind. Also what are the chances of D-38?" she lowered her voice when she asked for that didn't want to get herself into even more trouble,

Merlin almost chocked "_Are ya serious?"_

"Aren't I always?"

"_Where are ya now?"_

"NY"

"_Got a favour to ask too, I need to skip country and-"_

"I'm already on it." Vivian knew what he was going to ask,

_"Thanks. Twenty-one hundred hours, Frank Sinatra Drive. The usual amount"_

_"_Deal"

"Well that was the quickest conversation for a woman ever" Tony mocked, as Vivian walked back over to the desk to retrieve her tablet,

"Yes well we've discussed the fact that I have no friends and long phone conversations are annoying"

Vivian stood looking out at the river that passed through New York; it was a quiet and cold evening the moon was hidden behind a formation of clouds.

A shadowed man stood next to her "All the world's a stage,

"And all the men and women merely players;" she replied

"They have their exits and their entrances,"

"And one man in his time plays many parts,"

"His acts being seven ages."

She turned to the man and shook his hand

"Good to see you, Merlin"

He nodded at her "Likewise. I've got what ya asked for" he handed over a weighted satchel, Vivian double checked the bag out of habit "There's a surprise in there for ya"

She pulled out a block of sturdy metal and grinned inanely "now that is a surprise."

"It was just lying around, consider it a partin' gift"

Vivian closed the satchel and handed over an envelope,

"This is sick, how'd ya make it?" Merlin looked at the passport in the envelope,

"Magic" she joked,

"Well I probably won't see you again, but here's the number to one of my good contacts. I ya need anything call 'im"

"Pleasure working with you" Vivian shook his hand again, "Don't die" she advised leaning against the railing,

"Likewise." Merlin walked off into the night leaving to god knows where.

"Well I best get back to Shield so I can start my new toys" Vivian smiled and headed off in the opposite direction to Merlin whistling 'country road' as she went.

* * *

I was right about Vivian not being home for ages but wrong about the time frame of 'ages' she didn't come home at all which made me a tiny bit worried. After I'd snapped at her the last day I wanted to make sure she wasn't skipping town on me – or without me.

Yes it would be an awful thing to ditch SHIELD but they had some of the top minds and if I heard right a blue furry Doctor to help so really they didn't need Vivian and Me. Fury said they wanted me because I 'didn't back down' but they had plenty of people like that and all those people where trained in espionage and how to take down a man from six blocks without anyone knowing he'd been shot, so realistically they didn't need me.

And if they tried to send me to jail well they'd have to find me first. One thing I was very good at was disappearing. It didn't matter if I had to change my hair or buy coloured contact lenses whatever it took so no one would find me.

Of course I'd have to give Steve back his dog tags but I could just leave them on the pillow in the middle of the night and slip out the window and go back to what I did best, stealing from rich bastards who came to a city or a town to cheat on their wives and thought no one would notice the tan line on their finger where they took off their wedding ring.

I headed to the lab first knowing that's where I could find Vivian and bumped into said blue furry Doctor,

"Oh hello" I said more than a little startled at meeting the man

"Hello" he said politely, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah I'm looking for my friend. Female, black hair about 5'5 likes to blow things up"

"Oh you mean Miss Rose"

"Yeah" it was strange hearing Vivian described as 'Miss', "Have you seen her?"

"She called a wizard and left" Stark said brushing past me with an armful of bits and pieces that would probably make some kind of weapon,

"Oh well I suppose I'd better go find her" I said leaving the lab and fishing my phone out of my bag to call Vivian, she picked up after the third ring,

_"Mistress of Pyrotechnics"_

"Yeah where are you? I went to the lab and you weren't there. How could you leave poor dishy Doctor Banner alone" I teased

_"He wasn't alone. He had Stark and a blue furry Doctor"_ Vivian said

"Yeah I met him. He seemed nice" I said leaving the base, "So where are you? I'm craving Chinese food"

_"Why don't you go with your boyfriend" _Vivian laughed

"You're hilarious" I said sarcastically, "And besides Steve isn't my boyfriend ... I think"

_"You think?"_

"I haven't had a boyfriend since I was sixteen and when you're sixteen it's beers in the back of his truck and let him put his hand down your pants. With Steve he wants to hold hands and stuff and its weirding me out"

_"Alright Miss Drama Queen, where do you want to eat?"_

"I'll get take out and bring it back to the apartment"

_"Alright I'll meet you there. Get me dumplings will you? And something with curry" _

"You got it. See you soon" I hung up and pulled the collar of my Dad's hunting jacket up, there was a nip in the air I wasn't used to being from the southern states, hell I'd never really seen snow, "So Chinese food" after wandering around the city for an hour I finally found a Chinese takeout.

I just got a little of everything and a little pot of curry so Vivian could dip whatever she liked into it as well as her dumplings and some fortune cookies. Heading back to the apartment I decided to cut through an alley for a short cut, I was almost out when a couple of tweakers stopped me,

"Give us your purse and you don't have to get hurt" one said rubbing his nose with one hand while pointing a switch blade at me with the other,

"Please" I scoffed and tried to walk past them but the one with the knife wasn't having it and he slashed at the air,

"I said give me your money!" he yelled,

"In case you haven't noticed I have food in my hands, food that's getting cold so if you'd like to let me past" I said forcefully but they still weren't having it so I took my .44 out of my pocket and shoot an explosive round into the wall behind the tweakers making them run past me and out of the alley, "Honestly" I sighed putting my gun back in my pocket, "This food better not be cold when I get back or I'm sending Steve after them" I said to myself before walking back to the apartment,

"Hey what took you so long?" Vivian asked as I walked in through the door,

"Got lost then got stopped by two rude tweakers" I said, "So if the foods cold blame them"

"I will" Vivian said opening the first box of rice, "I heard an explosion, was that you?"

"Yeah I fired one of those explosive rounds into the wall to make them get out of my way. Worked too they ran like little bitches" I said sitting down on the floor with Vivian, "So where'd you get to today?" I asked

"I had a couple of errands to run" she said, "But don't worry I'm not about to skip town and leave you with the Puny God and the Cap, I have big plans!" she said excitedly

"I can only imagine"

"Oh don't worry it's nothing awful"

"That makes me feel better actually"

"So come on then we have Chinese food and beer. What's bugging you about the Cap" so I told Vivian of my woes and she listened which was really all I wanted, "Just tell him you don't want to hold hands and cuddle. You already have one vag you don't want another one"

"Yeah that'll work I can just see his face" I laughed covering my mouth so no rice would fly out, "What do you mean you don't need another vagina – no he wouldn't even say the word"

"He wouldn't would he?" Vivian agreed, "Well if it's any help I like him better than the Puny God for sure"

"You just don't like Thor because he calls you small"

"I already know I'm small and I don't need him pointing it out every time I see him!" Vivian fumed,

"So tell him next time"

"Nah I'd rather just make something blow up in his face" Vivian said,

"What like loony toon style hand him a present and have it blow up in his face so that his face is backwards?"

"Yeah just like that!" Vivian said, that's when her phone rang, "Oops gotta go do something illegal" she said standing up and stretching her legs,

"You have an alarm on your phone to tell you it's time to do something illegal now?" I laughed

"Should I lock the door?"

"Nah if anyone's stupid enough to try and break in I'll just shoot them" I said, "Have fun with whatever you're doing"

"See ya" Vivian walked out the door and I binned the boxes that were lying around,

"What to do now?" I wondered aloud, "I think I'll soak in the tub till she gets back" but she never came back


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 12:**

Vivian returned to the Helicarrier with her new ingredients for disaster. Stark and Banner were still there when she returned,

"Have fun with the wizard?"

The small British girl looked at him like he was mental "Wizard? Oh right Merlin" Vivian shook off Tony's question with a question of her own "Is there a glove box on this ship?"

"Only in a car" Stark retorted concentrating on his work whilst Vivian gathered thing she needed from the pile she'd left on a chair,

"In the next room" Banner corrected, knowing what kind of glove box she meant, "But what would you need that for?"

Vivian grabbed a pair of safety goggles and rushed across to the other room "explosive stuff"

D-38 or Depleted uranium as it's more commonly known is often used for armour-piercing projectiles and in the hands of a explosive nut is going to be downsized and used for rounds in a hand gun. Who says armour piercing round have to be just for larger projectiles? Merlin couldn't acquire a lot of the substance so Vivian had enough to make six bullets for Alice's .44 magnum.

Vivian sealed the box and removed it from the chamber, venturing out into the main lab area to find it empty, she almost died when she saw the time four in the morning.

"It took me that long?" she asked herself stretching her back, it cracked loudly "that's what I get for being hunched over for so long" she thought to herself why sleep now no point really. So she carried on with the next stage of her work, playing with the new block of metal she'd been given.

She was quite surprised that the helicarrier had facilities that would allow her to melt metal. This however was not her strong suit and found herself with burn marks up both arms, she was lucky that one of the engineers had appeared before she'd set herself on fire with the furnace. She told him what she needed and he assisted eagerly. For an expert it didn't take him long to fashion the metal into the shape she needed, thanking him as she returned to the lab. Ignoring the desk she set up camp on the floor cutting lengths of Kevlar to make a shirt for the metal chest plate to fit in. As she was adding the finishing touches, Vivian felt her eyes closing and was quickly awoken with a pair of scissors in her hand

"Ah, shit, erm, plasters!" she ran around the lab till she found a box of plasters in a draw. "Coffee then finish." Vivian yawned and ventured forth to the canteen, sitting down at a table with coffee and fell asleep shortly after.

* * *

When Vivian didn't come home I made a point of getting up early and heading to the base to find her,

"You're in early" Thor said

"Looking for Vivian. She didn't come home last night"

"I think the Ferret is in the lab I heard a lot of cursing there early this morning"

"You shouldn't call her that. She has a hard enough time being short" I said

"I mean no disrespect"

"Just try calling her Vivian" I smiled and headed off running into Dr Banner, "Ah good just the fella I wanted to see"

"Forgive me if that phrase sends a chill down my spine" Dr Banner joked,

"Oh don't be such a worry wart I'm not gonna hurt ya" I laughed, "I'm looking for my pet arsonist"

"Well she was working on something last night and if she didn't go home then she's probably still in the lab. I'm headed there now actually"

"Great I'll tag along then. She's not giving you guys any grief is she? She gets pretty into whatever it is she's doing and sometimes she forgets about the outside world. I know once she was so absorbed in something that she forgot to sleep for a week. She didn't understand how she was so weak"

Banner laughed and I could see why Vivian liked him, he had an honest face and kind eyes, _"Kind of like Steve but I won't give him a chance to prove himself" _I thought a little bitterly. All thoughts of Steve were however pushed to the back of my mind when I caught sight of Vivian.

Her arms bore scorch marks and she was covered in plasters and under her eyes were a deep dark purple, "Vivian! What the hell!" I said running over to her

"Oh Alice hi, is it past noon already?"

"No it's eight am I got up early when you didn't come home last night" I said, "Good thing too, what have you done to yourself?"

"Oh this? I'll be fine, say do you have your gun on you?"

"Yeah of course" I handed her my gun and she emptied out the rounds already in the chamber and loaded some new ones in,

"I was working on these last night. You're gonna love them. They're amour piercing!" Vivian said happily, "Come on I want to see you test them out!"

"Don't we need armour to pierce first?"

"Yeah I've got some Kevlar here!" Vivian said setting up a piece of Kevlar on the wall and handing me back my gun, "Come on let's see what the bullets can do!"

So I took aim at the piece of Kevlar on the wall and fired and much to my surprise the bullet went right through and lodged itself in the wall, "I knew it would work!" Vivian cheered, "And that isn't all I was working on! I made you something else!" she said grinning so that her canine teeth looked elongated and sharper than usual, "Just wait till you see!"

"I really don't like the sound of this" Banner said

"Me either Doc. Me either"

* * *

"Stay still" Vivian ordered, stabbing Alice in the side as she fidgeted on the spot,

"Why do you need to sew while I'm wearing it?" Vivian was trying to adjust the vest since it was a little loose on Alice,

"Because it's easier that way and look I'm done now" cutting the stray thread as she stepped back to admire her work "is it heavy?"

Alice stretched and twisted with the Kevlar vest on "oddly no it's quite light and doesn't chaff"

Vivian nodded and walked back over to the desk "Good good, O I forgot to mention that new magazine I gave you don't use them unless you're going against Famine the black spidery thing"

The southern girl gave her a questionable look

"Why?"

"Ehe...armour piercing remember? Not good if you're against normal people," the arsonist chuckled checking the vest over again when Steve joined them in the lab "Morning Cap"

"Morning." he looked at Alice who was stood with her hands in her pockets as Vivian tugged at some of the seams "Nice vest"

"It's not up to Alice fashion standards but it's durable and will probably save her life" Vivian boasted proudly rising to her full height

"What do you mean 'probably'?" Alice snapped,

"We have to scientifically test it first" Vivian brimmed brightly, placing a pistol point black on the vest and pulled back the trigger. It echoed loudly in the room and the force sent Alice off her feet.

Steve rushed over to Alice who sat up rather dazed before she started laughing,

"You crazy bitch!" she yelled, "If I wanted to be shot at I'd have stayed in the south and married me a redneck boy who makes shine in his tub!"

Vivian chuckled lightly

"I should shoot you more. You're hilarious when you get all southern"

Protective Steve however did not find this situation a laughing matter

"What if that vest didn't work?" he shouted,

"Oh I've never seen you angry this is a change" Vivian mused placing the gun on the desk, "And I knew it was going to work. If it had been **just** Kevlar I would have shot her from a distance, point blank would have been silly,"

"You've certainly been busy it seems" Banner added, admiring the fact that whatever the vest had in it at protected Alice at point blank range no blood at all.

"So it's not just Kevlar?" Alice asked

Vivian grinned smugly

"Of course I'd rather not have you dying in battle against these horsemen so I made it super special for you. There is a sheet of metal in that vest, very hard to get hold of and very hard to break ... adamanitum"

Steve thought deeply for a moment

"My shield is made from that"

"And I know how sturdy that relic is, so I have no worries about Ali dying. My mind will be at ease." Vivian yawned rubbing her eyes "I'm going to take a nap" grabbing a long white lab coat from the back of a chair and crawled under the desk "g'night" she pulled the lab coat over her and fell asleep instantly

"She's really going to sleep under there?"

"She sleeps in odd places, time to time" Alice laughed, remembering the time she'd come back from 'work' to find Vivian sleeping in the gap between the wall and the sofa instead of actually on the sofa.

"That's ... not how you play pacman" Vivian mumbled in her sleep curling up into a ball.

Stark finally decided to join the team in the lab and was instantly full of questions

"Okay first, why is there a bullet in wall? Why are you wearing Kevlar over your clothes and why is the arsonist under the desk?" he asked pointing at each respective person

"New bullets. New bullet proof vest with added Adamanitum Viv made for me and she sleeps in odd places." Alice answered quickly, removing her new vest and holding it under her arm. "Well we should leave the brainy bunch be, let's go Steve"

Stark turned to the quiet doctor as soon as Alice and Steve left,

"She said Adamanitum didn't she?"

Banner nodded

"She did, why?"

"Where the hell did she get that from?"

"I'd assume the wizard" Banner added half joking

* * *

"So where do you think she got her hands on Adamanitum?" Steve asked

"I have no idea. She has 'sources' in just about every city and they usually all have code names. There was this one guy in Reno who went by the name 'Marie Antoinette' turned out to be some six foot four fat Mexican dude called 'Bubba' so that came as a bit of a shock" I explained

"You know I thought you were joking before about prison" Steve said, "But the more I talk to you the more I see you really weren't joking"

"Three hundred thousand dollars from Stark and all I had to do was stand beside him like a human trophy and giggle a bit" I said, "Easiest money we ever made" I laughed,

"What were you even doing in Vegas?"

"Vivian counts cards and where better than Vegas" I said

"Did you find the ferret then?" Thor asked as we entered the canteen, I was in desperate need of coffee. Mornings were evil,

"It's Vivian and yes we did. She made me new bullets" I said happily pouring some coffee into a mug, "Ugh mornings _are_ evil" I groaned taking a sip from the hot liquid and scalding myself a little on the tongue, "Great now things are gonna taste funny all day" I said putting down my new vest on the table and taking a seat next to Steve,

"What is this?" Thor asked picking up my vest to examine it,

"Kevlar and Adamanitum vest. It's to stop me dying when I get shot at" I said examining the scar on my arm where I'd been shot at by SHIELD agents in Vegas, "I'm a normal squishy human girl so I don't deflect bullets like y'all do" I said poking my stomach to prove that I was indeed, squishy,

"I seem to recall only one 'squishy' part" Thor said making me almost choke on my coffee

"This is so not the time to talk about my squishy bits" I said while Steve narrowed his eyes a little at Thor,

"My apologies" Thor said, "I wish you all the luck in the world my friend" Thor stood up and clapped Steve on the shoulder and left the canteen

"What was that about not being clapped on the shoulder?" Steve asked

"Don't get all high and mighty. I said I'm not the type of girl where _Daddy _claps you on the shoulder. I said I'm the type of girl your friends congratulate you on and correct me if I'm wrong but the 'puny god' isn't your Daddy"

"No he's not"

"I rest my case" I said sipping my coffee and absentmindedly playing with Steve's dog tags around my neck,

"Hey you're wearing them" Steve said leaning in close and lifting the tags with his hand,

"Well yeah you gave them to me and said 'Here you can wear these' unless you want them back cause then I'm afraid that isn't happening. I like shiny things and this is the first piece of jewellery a guy has given me since I was fifteen"

"I thought you didn't have a boyfriend since you were sixteen?" Steve asked

"Yeah but he didn't give me anything. He was going to give me his great grandmother's broach that survived the civil war when we were married and needless to say that didn't happen"

"What did happen if you don't mind me asking" Steve asked sliding his chair a little closer to mine and I had to stop myself from ripping his shirt off just to get a look at the muscles I knew were under there,

"Well he was old school. Old family. Old money. His mamma and mine were debs together and they thought it would be a perfect match. He was fine for a while but the more I got to know him the more of a bastard I found him to be. One evening he asked to see me and I showed up in a pair of boots, old blue jeans a plaid shirt and my daddy's hunting jacket since it was cold – well cold for the south – and he hit the roof! How _dare_ I show up in such a state! Didn't I care who saw me? Did I want to disgrace him? I said I was sorry that when he called I thought he just wanted to hang out maybe go for a walk or something I didn't know he expected me to show up in a Chanel dress decked out in my Grandmamma's pearls. And he hit me" Steve's whole body tensed, "He immediately apologised but I wasn't having it

"What did you do?"

"I broke his nose and retracted a testicle" I said proudly,

"How did you do that?" Steve asked flinching visibly,

"Head butted him in this part of his nose" I said touching the bridge of Steve's nose, "there isn't actually a bone there contrary to popular belief. It's all cartilage so with enough force I was able to shatter it. Cartilage actually makes a great sound when you shatter it. It's my second favourite noise" I said

"Second favourite" Steve was obviously confused,

"Well you're still a virgin so you wouldn't know about the other noise" I laughed, "Well I think I'm gonna go clothes shopping. I don't have anything for these harsh New York autumns" I said rinsing my mug out and heading out of the base leaving Steve bewildered sitting in the canteen on his own


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Thirteen:**

Vivian woke up with a literal shock; she jumped so much she hit her head on the desk.

"Sweet Jesus" she cursed clutching her poor head, Stark was crouched there with a grin on his face,

"How long are you going to sleep?"

"Till now I suppose" she retorted, shivering from the cold air in the lab, Vivian pulled the lab coat on before crawling out from under the desk. didn't take long for Stark to crack up laughing when he saw Vivian in the lab coat which was much too big for her it trailed on the floor "I hate you so much," she huffed leaving the lab to locate the canteen.

"Sleep well?" Alice asked, as Vivian sat down opposite her coffee in one hand and bacon filled bagel in the other,

"Until Stark jolted me awake!" she complained, stuffing her face with the bagel dragging the news up on her tablet,

"Anything new?" Alice tried to read it upside down; she only kept up to date with the news when Vivian read it. Her face went as white as the lab coat she wore and half chocked on her bagel, "Steady now"

"He's been released" she answered slowly, her eyes felt like they burned and that there was lump in her throat,

"Who?"

"Glen Maxwell, my dad." Vivian couldn't fully compute the situation, what should she do? Go see him?

Alice was the only person who knew everything and she was under strict orders to never tell and to never bring it up. "Do you want to visit him?" she had never seen Vivian this unsettled,

She shook her head "I don't know. I want to but I left my past in a box to never be reopened and he wouldn't recognize me anyway. And I have so much work to do here."

"STOP MAKING EXCUSES!" Alice shouted slamming her hands on the table, a lot of people turned to stare at their table; she lowered her voice before speaking again "He's your Father. Your real Father. And I know that you don't like talking about what happened back then but come on Vivian the man raised you! He actually loved you. And this may be my own personal bias but if you have a Father who loves you then you should see him one last time"

Vivian fiddled with the cuffs on the jacket, seriously trying to pull back her tears. "I'm scared to see him" she whispered leaving a half eaten bagel and coffee as she let the canteen _'I don't know if I can face him'_ she thought back to the times she used to help her father at the jazz bar they owned and her father singing in his deep voice 'But not for me' she pulled out her tablet and ordered a ticket to England, sending a message to Alice stating she was going to be gone for a few days, Alice said she'd cover for her. She left the Heli carrier in a flurry, grabbing a change of clothes before heading straight to the airport. She was nervous and excited to meet her father again but first she had to find him and finding people is one of her many skills.

* * *

No one noticed Vivian had gone until the second day she didn't come in. This time it was Fury, who pulled me about it,

"I notice Miss Rose hasn't been in for a few days" he said surveying me with his one good eye,

"She overworked herself and she's taking a few days. I'm sure Banner and Stark have told you how hard she's been working. Even your own staff must have noticed her day and night working away in that lab"

"Yes I have noticed the hours she's been putting in" Fury said,

"So what's the problem?" I asked boldly, "She's tired and overworked so she's staying at home for a while to get her strength back" I said folding my arms over my chest, "Now if that's everything and you don't need me to shoot at anything I'll take my leave" I didn't wait to be dismissed I simply turned on my heel and left the control room,

"So come on _where_ is she?" Stark asked, he'd taken to pestering me since Vivian wasn't around,

"I'm telling you the same thing I told Fury. She overworked herself and she's at home until I say she can come back" I said trying to get past him and down to the firing range, I'd finally been able to get my hands on an AK 47 courtesy of one Agent Natasha Romanoff and I was dying to play with it,

"See I don't believe you" Stark said making a point of standing in my way no matter how much I tried to go around him, "That girl is a workaholic and I don't think even you could keep her at home"

"Believe what you like. Now either get out of my way or I'll be testing my new armour piercing rounds on you" I said,

"Oh is that a threat?"

"I don't make threats. I make promises and I always keep my promises" I said glaring at Stark, who was only really a few inches taller than I was even in flat shoes,

"You heard the girl Stark" Steve said from behind Stark,

"Oh boyfriend to the rescue" Stark teased,

"Armour piercing rounds remember" I smiled sweetly at Stark who moved aside, "Thank ya kindly" I said my accent becoming more pronounced,

"I guess your secrets out" Steve said walking by me to the firing range,

"Oh that's the least of my secrets" I laughed, "I mean I'm sure Fury knows some like the whole teen runaway thing, dirty deeds done dirt cheap but not as many as he'd like. I have very many secrets" I said

"You know for a small girl you're pretty scary" Steve said,

"I know. It turns most guys on" I said making Steve falter, "You know we're really going to have to work on that. You can't be tripping or choking every time I make a dirty joke or say something vaguely sexual"

"I'll keep that in mind"

"Also you might not want to come down here with me. Natasha found me a Kalashnikov"

"How did she get one of those?" Steve looked honestly amazed

"I don't know and I'm not going to ask but I'm dying to play with it" I said throwing open the doors of the firing range where Natasha stood waiting for me gun in hand, "It's so pretty!" I said taking the gun off her, "Remind me to teach you that thing with your hoo ha" I said cleaning the last part up for Steve

"Done. Have fun" Natasha said before leaving the range,

"You're going to teach her something?"

"Yeah and if you get over your whole attitude to sex I'll show it to you. Stand back" I brought the gun up to eye level and let rip tearing the paper target to shreds, "Oh my god I love this thing!" I laughed once all my bullets were gone, "It's too bad Fury won't let me keep it" I said sadly putting the gun down, "I suppose I'd better get home and check Vivian hasn't turned the floor into a workshop again" I said to Steve, "But honestly think about the sex thing. I'm really good just ask Thor" I said leaving the range,

"I'd rather not ask another man about how my girlfriend is in bed" Steve said

"Suit yourself. But let me know if you want to lose it because I'm not picky where I do you"

Steve paled. I laughed

* * *

Vivian stood at the airport it was early hours of the morning, people pushed past her to get to their terminal. She hoisted her bag over her shoulder and went to grab a taxi. She would seek her father out in the morning. A cheap hotel would see her through a day or two. She tossed and turned full of anxiety. When she finally dozed off it was for an hour then she was up thanks to the blinding sunrise. She had brought and outfit that maybe her father would recognize, a high waist black patterned skirt, white Victorian shirt with frills around the cuffs and white ribbons in her hair. She thought she would start at a place they both new well 'the sidewinder' or where it used to be anyway. It was a coffee shop now. It seemed they both thought the same thing. Vivian noticed a tall greying man dressed in simple shirt and jeans but his deep green eyes gave him away. She couldn't muster anything to say and stood a good four foot away from him and hummed their favourite jazz song.

"Chet baker, good man" he smiled though when he turned to face her, the smile faded he rubbed his eyes and blinked before staggering towards her reaching out to her "Vivian?" to hear him call her name after all these years, sent her flying back into her past

"Daddy" she wept, running towards her father hugging him tightly "Daddy. I missed you" she sobbed, he cried too holding her close ruffling her hair like he used to. Pulling apart he looked her up and down

"My little girl, you've grown up to be such a beautiful lady" he was still the same proud man he was back then. "I've wanted to talk to you for so long" they went and sat at the coffee shop where their home used to be and reminisced and she told him everything. "You were just like me growing up, a trouble maker"

They laughed

"I'm sorry daddy but I can't stay here long I have to get back to work" Glen took her hand and squeezed it

"I understand" she smiled and wrote down her number "call me whenever! I'd give you an address but we move a lot. I love you daddy" Glen hugged her again

"Take care; you'll always be my little girl."

The next day she returned to New York and ventured straight to the base. She needed to see Alice. Whom she found with Steve, running up to her and giving her a hug

"I'm back" she mumbled slowly and started crying again "he remembered me" she sobbed, "He remembered"

* * *

I held Vivian until she stopped crying, it had been fourteen years since she'd seen her father and I guess the experience must have been too much for her,

"Now aren't you glad I made you go" I asked when Vivian pulled away from me and wiped her face on her sleeve,

"Yeah I am. I gave him my number so I suppose he'll call" Vivian said

"That's my girl" I said enveloping her in another hug, "Come on we'll get coffee somewhere in the city and you can tell me all about it" I waved goodbye to Steve and took Vivian out of the base and to a nearby Starbucks,

"I didn't know what I should do so I put on a skirt and blouse like the old school uniform I used to wear and headed to where the club used to be. It's a coffee shop now"

"That's a shame I'd have liked to see the place where you learned to count cards" I said sitting down at a table with two large black coffees,

"Well I saw him first and he didn't see me so I hummed a few bars of our favourite Chet Baker song and he knew it was me the moment he turned around" Vivian continued to tell me everything that had happened in England and when she was finished she was physically as well as emotionally drained, "It was good to see him again" she said finally after a moment of silence,

"Another reason why you should always listen to me when I give advice" I said smugly

"You just had to ruin the moment didn't you?" Vivian laughed, "We were having a nice bonding moment and you go and ruin it by being all vain. Pride is a sin you know!"

"I prefer Lust if I'm honest"

"Speaking of which what happened with you and the Cap? I see you're wearing his dog tags openly now"

"Yeah well everyone knows he's my boyfriend now so there's really no point in hiding them. Plus I look tough with them on"

"No you don't" Vivian said bluntly, "You're tall and skinny you don't look tough. You look like arm candy"

"Thanks Viv"

"You're always welcome. I think I'm gonna head back to the apartment. Jet lag"

"Yeah ok, I'll head back to SHIELD for damage control" so Vivian and I parted ways she went back to the apartment and I went back to base,

"Resting huh?" Stark was the first person I met when I got back,

"Have you ever worked a solid week with four hours sleep been attacked by a strange spider like thing and almost been poisoned _then_ almost burn yourself alive?" I asked him, he didn't say anything, "I didn't think so" I headed back to the control room where I met Fury and gave him a story about an overworked Vivian having a bit of a breakdown because of a lack of sleep plus the whole overworking thing.

Steve however was a different matter; he wouldn't let the issue go no matter how many times I fed him the 'official' story,

"Come on I know you're not telling me something, is it to do with her life in England?"

"I told you. Vivian's life in England is none of mine or anyone else's business unless she wants to make it so. So drop the issue alright? She was overworked and her brain was a little fried and she had a dream about her birth parents"

"She's adopted?"

"Yeah that's all I know as well so don't think you're gonna get anything else out of me" I said resolutely

"Ok I'll drop the issue" Steve finally admitted defeat,

"Good"

Later when I got back to the apartment I found Vivian sound asleep in her room and thought it best not to wake her. We'd all need to be at our best when Apocalypse made his next move


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fourteen:**

It took two days before Vivian was fit for active duty again and that was by my standards she still had to pass a physical from Dr Banner,

"Honestly I'm fine" Vivian said, "I worked too hard and I had a bit of a breakdown" I'd told her the story I'd told everyone else so that when she did go back in no one would suspect anything

"Yes well you'll have to take it easier from now on. When everyone else goes home so do you" Banner said taking off his glasses and pronouncing her fit for duty again,

"I'll make her stick to it" I promised, "Thanks Doc"

"I don't buy it" Stark said, he seemed to be the only one. Everyone else was surprised it took Vivian as long as it did to have her 'breakdown'

"Well that's probably a first" Vivian joked making even Steve laugh

"You don't seem the type to have a sudden mental breakdown" Stark continued,

"What can I say? All these late nights not to mention being mind jacked by the butt hurt god and being shocked with three hundred thousand volts got to me. I'll try not to let it happen again" Vivian said snidely

"Speaking of the butt hurt god any news on that front?" I asked

"Our facial recognition software hasn't come up with anything yet but we did get word from Professor Xavier that neither of his students has come back, and there's more bad news on top of that" Steve said

"More bad news? A third horseman?" I asked

"It looks like another one of his people is missing. A Remy Le Beau, he was here when Xavier was last" Steve said

"Oh the Cajun man" I said immediately

"So should we assume Apocalypse has all four horsemen now?" Vivian asked

"I think it's safe to assume so" Banner agreed,

"So what do we do if we find or capture a horseman?" I asked, "I mean they used to be people so we can hardly kill them"

"We could hit them really hard in the head and see if that helps" Vivian said

"And you're the smart one" I scoffed

"Oh shut up you trollop"

"Nerd"

"Slag"

"Frigid bitch"

"Spread your legs for anyone recently?"

"Not that you'd know anything about that"

"Because I have morals"

"Oh is that what those are? I thought it was because you were a tease"

"I'll kill you"

"I welcome the challenge"

The rest of the men in the lab watched our exchange with a mixture of horror and concern. Were we actually fighting or was this just another thing in the Vivian and Alice show,

"Well I guess I better modify the facial recognition programme. Widen the parameters as it were" Vivian said grabbing her tablet and getting to work immediately

"Yeah I think I'll go punch something" I said, "See you later. Remember there is a quitting time now, don't make me come up here and drag you out by your hair" Vivian pulled a face and waved a hand dismissively at me so I left the lab with Steve on my heels, "You're like a puppy you know. You always seem to be around"

"I don't know how to respond to that"

"I wasn't saying it to gain a response I was just stating a fact"

"I see"

"So are you gonna come and watch me punch things?"

"I am. I've never seen you hit anything before" Steve said,

"Well I can't compare to you or the rest of the super best friends but for a normal human gal I do pack a pretty decent punch"

"Well I'd still like to see"

"Suit yourself"

* * *

Vivian delved back into the world of work, her head much clearer now and fully refreshed from her 'breakdown'. Though Stark didn't believe that and kept pestering her on where she had really been,

"What's your problem Stark?" she asked moving the screen out the way with the flick of a hand,

"I just don't believe you were having a breakdown...you were off with some guy weren't you?"

She slowly cracked up laughing

"That's ridiculous and within what time frame would I meet this man?" Though when she thought about it Tony wasn't far off.

"The internet? You're always on it"

Vivian couldn't stop laughing, her sides hurt so much

"Do you honestly think I'd meet up with someone off the internet?"

The computer bleared loudly, catching them off guard, pulling the screen back up Vivian noticed that one of the missing Xavier students had made an appearance,

"Looks like we better assemble"

"No wait! I'll go, I mean honestly you four will just scare him senseless and put him on edge. I'll go I'm the least intimidating don't you think?" Vivian explained, rushing out of the lab,

"Just don't do anything reckless."

"Can't guarantee that but get someone to notify the Xavier institute" she reminded.

Havoc was tall lad for his age almost hitting six foot; he looked nothing like his older brother and had more controllable powers too. He was waiting in an alley way constantly staring at the charcoal grey sky, "Alexander Summers?" a voice asked meekly from behind him, he jumped and instantly when into a fighting stance,

"Who are you? And what do you want?" he frowned eyeing up his opponent which was a girl much shorter than himself,

"Vivian. Professor Xavier requested our help to find you"

"I don't finding. I need to find-"

"Polaris? Lorna Dane or Pestilence as I think she's called now" Vivian interrupted abruptly,

"You're with them aren't you. That Shield group. You won't help her! You'll end up killing her!" Havock shouted ready to fight Vivian if he needed to,

"Okay first calm down kid, I'm not looking for a fight." Vivian said holding her hands up in defence "Second we don't plan to kill, I'm part of the science division we've already got things in the works to reverse whatever Apocalypse has done to her." she explained,

Havok shot a blast near her feet "I don't believe you! You could be hiding weapons anywhere"

Vivian sighed she had no patient for stubborn children; she grabbed the hem of her knee length red skirt

"Want to see if I'm hiding guns under here? Cause it's the only place I could, if you've not noticed I'm not carrying a bag or coat" she reminded,

"No no ..." his cheeks flushed red "I'm sorry it's just I want to save Polaris"

Vivian smiled "no sweat, now come on Professor Xavier is waiting back at our base" she noticed how Havok looked like he was going to make a run for it when they reached the open street,

'_We'll have to do this the hard way'_ she thought waiting till his back was turned, using her rarely used athletic knowhow to run and leap into the air striking the back of his head just at the start of his neck with a well aimed palm-heel strike, knocking him out cold. "Sorry kid I just don't fancy having to hunt you down again" she apologized straightening her skirt back out before calling Stark "I've got Havok" she noticed a lot of people stopped in the street then ran in the opposite direction screaming

"_Sounds like you're at a party and you didn't invite me I'm hurt" _Stark joked over the phone,

Vivian ran to the street and saw a huge red monster with fire leaping from his fists smashing a lot of chairs and buildings and Loki was stood nearby, "Okay, I've located Loki and one large red monster-y thing with fiery fists...and he's looking this way" Vivian retreated back towards Havok "Ah Christ I shouldn't have knocked you out" she cursed,

"_Who did you knock out?"_

_"_Havoc"

"_Why?"_

"He was going to make a run for it" she retorted, trying to pick him up looking behind her to see Loki staring at her with a smug grin on his face

"_So carry him"_

_"_ARE YOU INSANSE? This kid is like half a foot taller than me and probably weighs twice as much, I'm not an ant!" she snapped back resorting to dragging Havok by his feet down the alley.

"War, fetch" the hulking great red thing charged towards her, she gave up with Havok and left him behind a bin before running in her five inch platforms down the alley

* * *

"Help would be great!" she shouted down the phone as War literally swept her off her feet, hanging her upside like a doll, "great day to wear a skirt" she grumbled trying desperately to keep it up.

"Jeez Viv I leave you alone for five minutes and you get yourself into a big ol mess" I laughed. As soon as she called Stark he told Banner who told me and I set off to find her with Steve ever at my side,

"You're not helping!" Vivian yelled desperatly trying both to wiggle free of what looked like a giant red hulk and to keep her skirt down,

"Alright alright keep your panties on" I loaded my gun with some of the explosive rounds Vivian had made me and fired them at the Rulk not that they did much damage all they did was annoy him and prompt him to drop Vivian. Thankfully Steve was on hand to catch her,

"Thanks Cap" she said patting him once on the chest

"So what's our next move?" I asked, "I mean you've got the kid but he's unconcious and probably won't be much help. And of course we owe the butthurt god for taking you last time"

"You guys need to get out of here" Steve said, "if this guy is anything like the Doc when he's angry then no offence but you girls don't stand a chance"

"Alright well let's get the kid and get out of here" I said grabbing Vivian

"Agreed. But if you guys get Loki I have unfinished business with him!" Vivian yelled.

We got Havoc or Alexander from behind the dumpster and headed back to base where Professor Xavier and a handful of his students were waiting,

"Alex!" A tall man with coppery hair who was wearing sunglasses indoors ran towards us when we dragged the kid into the base with it,

"He'll be ok. I said. She only knocked him out a little bit. We're going to take him to the Doc and he'll look the kid over and then you can see him"

"Alright then let's go" Vivian said shifting the kids weight on her shoulders as we dragged him to the lab where Doctor Banner would give the kid a once over to asses any damage Vivian had done

* * *

The girls watched Doctor Banner check the teen over, no permanent was damage just a few cuts and he would probably wake up with a very sore head. Fifteen minutes passed before Havok finally woke up, he sat up rubbing the back of his head slowly taking note of his surroundings though he took one glimpse at Vivian and jumped out of the bed with every intent to turn her into a punching bag, Bruce stood in his way forcing him back onto the bed,

"You sneaky bitch!"

Vivian shrugged sipping her coffee loudly "you should respect your elders"

Havoc scoffed "Like you're older than me"

She smiled eerily back at him

"I'm 24, little boy so shut up and behave" she ordered, rising to her feet "Well I best go inform your whiny brother that you're awake"

Scott had gone ballistic at Vivian for 'endangering his little brother', Vivian quite politely told him to 'shove it' she led him and the Professor back to the med bay.

Vivian, Alice and the doctor left the brothers alone when they started arguing like children, Barton walked up to them as they got half way down the corridor,

"Fury wants everyone in the command room; Cap and Stark are back with Loki"

"O this should be fun."

They gathered in the command room, Vivian sat on the chair and started spinning it round,

"Now we're all here, Loki has been apprehended by Stark and Rodgers. He is currently being held in a pressurized chamber, we need to extract information regarding Apocalypse's plans from him. I don't care how you do it but-"

Vivian stopped spinning the chair and raised her hand in the air like she was at school again "I humbly volunteer" she leapt up picking Loki's helmet that was sat in the middle of the table "Me and Loki have lots of catching up to do" Vivian grinned wickedly, placing the helmet on her head, humming cheerfully as she scuttled out the room

* * *

"She scares me sometimes" Steve admitted.

"She scares all of us" I laughed, "I'm gonna go with her make sure she doesn't kill him" I left the table and followed Vivian, "So what's the plan?"

"Well I and Mr Tazer are having a rematch with Loki and I figure we can annoy some information out of him. Actually you can help. He lives in the puny gods shadow and if we dangle you chosing him over Loki that should bug the shit out of him" Vivian cackled

"You my little friend are far too into this" I said

The two of us headed along the various corridors until we came to the large glass chamber Fury had built to house Dr Banner should he go Hulk on everyone instead it currently housed Loki,

"Shield thinks that by sending two girls to do a mans job I'll be sympathetic and give up any information" Loki scoffed

"Nah we just owe you for taking Viv so we're here to have some fun and if you give up any info then that'll be a bonus" I said shrugging my shoulders

"I even brought our old friend Mr Tazer!" Vivian said proudly displaying her tazer which I knew for a fact she'd added an extra charge to,

"But we'll save the violence for later. What I really want to know is - what's it like having sex with and giving birth to a horse?"

"I beg your pardon?" Loki said

"Yeah I'm wondering about that too" Vivian said, "I mean you don't have any _natural _holes to give birth through and an eight legged horse" Vivian took a sharp intake of breath "ow"

"You read something in a book and you think you know everything" Loki said with a sarcastic laugh

"Well I know one thing" I said because we clearly weren't getting anywhere with the horse "You. Are still a virgin" Loki flustered

"And what gives you that impression?"

"Well if I had to chose I'd chose Thor everytime"

"You are a puny human female what could you possibly know of my strife?"

"Well here's the thing men like to talk and men who think they're important talk more than most and your brother well he thinks he's super important and he talked and talked and talked and I mean it got kind of boring after a while kind of made me struggle to get through the sex" I said knowing full well everyone was watching. Now it wasn't a complete lie but it wasn't exactly the truth either

"Of course you would fall under my brothers charm" Loki said to me while Vivian worked on pouring some glitter she'd found somewhere into the air ducts

"It's like a pretty snow globe!" Vivian laughed as the glitter stuck to Loki's skin and hair

"And as for charms it was the other way around darlin. Men fall under my charms not the other way around. Vivian he's all yours, do what you do best" I turned on my heel leaving Vivian to do what she wanted unsupervised. One thing I knew for sure Vivian was small but she was damn scary when she needed to be

* * *

Loki stared at the small girl who just sat outside the cage with her tablet and still wearing his helmet,

"You know you and I are similar"

"How so?"

"Well we're both adopted"

Loki frowned at her through the glass "thank you for reminding me"

"We both weren't exactly needed and that ended up with us rebelling. I turned to gang violence and pissing off the government whenever possible. Though your rebelling seems to require you to dominate everyone" Vivian looked up from her tablet pushing the helmet back so she could see since it fell down "and we both look retarded in this helmet"

Loki couldn't help but chuckle

"And here I thought you were going to interrogate me?" he asked

"And here I was making polite conversation, youngsters these days" she sighed acting like an old woman "fine have it your way. Who's the Red Hulk?" she enquired

Loki leant against the glass before answering

"Why should I tell you?"

Vivian entered a command into her tablet issuing a quick high voltage shock to Loki bringing him to his knees "that's why" she smiled opening a bag of marshmallows, "Simple questions, nothing difficult"

"I am no fool!" he snapped banging a fist against the glass, "Thaddeus Ross" he struggled back onto his feet

"O that guy, really? He seemed too nice to be that War Horsemen. So Apocalypse what's his master plan?" Loki was silent so Vivian turned on the sprinkler system inside the cage before sending another wave of volts coursing through his body. The electricity flowed through the water and into the circuits, something Vivian forgot about. The flash from the electricity was almost blinding, the power on the ship flickered off then back, including the cage. The doors opened then slowly closed thought they didn't close fully because a heavily dazed Loki had fallen out of the doors as they'd open and onto Vivian who had been blinded by the flash. This was an awkward situation, when Thor, Steve and Stark had arrived since there had been an alert in the command room that the pressurised cage door was open. Vivian trying desperately to lift Loki off her, her skirt half hitched up by the accident,

"Can someone please get this guy off me he's heavy"

Loki came too and just stared at Vivian "you're quite pretty up-close" Vivian's only response to that was a sharp knee to his groan, her faced flushed from being seen in such a state. Thor lifted his brother up and clapped him on the shoulders as he put him back in the cage,

"I didn't know you had it in you, brother." he approved seeing a new side to his brother, Vivian booted him in the shin again "nothing to be embarrassed about ferret"

Vivian trembled with anger, ready to find something to beat the arrogant god with but was dragged away by Steve before she could do so

"Maybe you should calm down"

"Shut up twinkle toes" she hissed, releasing herself from his grasp and finding a vent to brood in.

* * *

I found Vivian in a vent above the lab brooding about Loki falling on top of her and Thor thinking it was a sex thing,

"You here to laugh at me too?" She asked

"Well not right away" I said, "I came to ask how you didn't realise water conducted electricity, hello Pokemon?" Vivian laughed

"Yeah I made a rookie mistake" Vivian admitted

"Seriously though good looking dude - or a would be good looking dude if he washed his hair - falls on top of you, calls you pretty, and you knee him in the family jewels" I shook my head

"Yeah well he's the enemy right?"

"And you have your eye on someone else"

"Maybe" Vivian said quietly

"Come on. Let's get out of here this place is dusty and these are new jeans" I climbed out of the vent and lost my footing on a patch of green slime left by Famine on his last visit making me land on my head with my legs over my shoulders, "Ow" I groaned trying to pick myself up,

"Do I want to ask?" Banner asked as I flipped myself right side up again with my lesser known gymnastic ability - to be a camellia you had to take an interest in both ciricular and extra ciricular activites so I chose gymnastics which my mother greatly approved of since it would keep me slim and tonned

"Fell out of the vent" I explained dusting my jeans off, "There's some slime in there from our last unexpected house guest"

"How did you land on your head?" Banner asked

"She was a gymnast back in her day" Vivian said dropping gracefully from the vent, "I think we're gonna go. I'd rather not see Loki again today or I might take a leaf from Alice's book and retract a testicle" Banner flinched

"Come on then Pikachu" I said steering Vivian out of the base and back to the apartment stopping for take out and beer on the way.

I'd just gotten out of the tub when I heard Vivian laughing, "What's going on out there?" I called wrapping a towel around my body,

"I found something you're really gonna want to see!" Vivian called back. I walked out of the bathroom and headed over to Vivian on the couch,

"What have you got?"

"Just watch" Vivian hit play on the file and a black and white video started up.

It was a chorus line of girls wearing spangly outfits and lo and behold there was Steve talking about buying bonds to help buy bullets,

"Where did you find that?"

"Hacked Stark Industries. Made sure he knew it was me. This was from 1943. And yes I have the mp3 file"

"This is so going to be my ringtone from now on" I laughed watching the rest of the video, "Steve is never going to live this down"


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Fifteen:**

The next day Vivian and I made a point to find Steve first thing. He was in the gym giving a punching bag what for and he didn't notice us come in until he sent the punching bag flying across the room,

"Now what did that poor ol bag ever do to you?" I asked grabbing Steve's attention and when he turned around I almost forgot my 'make Steve relive his chorus line days' plan.

His t-shirt was stuck to his body and showing off the well defined muscle underneath. It was only when Vivian started humming his theme music that I remembered why we were down here,

"I didn't hear you guys come in" Steve said picking up a punching bag to replace the one he'd killed,

"No you were busy killing a punching bag" I laughed as Vivian's humming got louder. Steve finally noticed,

"What's that you're humming?" He asked warily although I was sure he already knew,

"Why it's your theme music darlin" I said seriously, "don't tell me you forgot about all those pretty dancing girls or your fabulous film star days"

"Where did you find that footage?"

"Well Viv's a star hacker. Not even Stark's security could keep her out" I explained, "and well there was some stuff Stark's Daddy had collected on you and your amazing dancing girls were part of that information"

"That was a long time ago" Steve started

"Oh don't worry it's not like I'm jealous of some dancing girls. Of course you aren't likely to live this down" I laughed, "The Star Spangled Man with a plan. I have to admit it is a catchy tune"

"It's your ringtone right?" Vivian asked

"That it is. I even have your part" I said to Steve "your best guys gun? Who wrote that claptrap?"

"It was either a dancing monkey or a lab rat" Steve said, "I chose dancing monkey"

"Then solider of course. I got a look at your record too. Not just your chorus line days"

Vivian was about to say something when Fury walked through the doors of the gym,

"Just the girls I wanted to see"

"I don't like the sound of this" Vivian said immediately

"Me either"

"Apparently our guest was rather _taken_ with Miss Rose yesterday and has asked to see her again" Fury said

"Me? What the hell does he want to see me for?" Vivian asked

"You'll just have to find out"

* * *

Vivian couldn't get the overly catchy theme tune out of her head as she hummed it down the corridor as she marched literally down the corridor, most of the agents stared as she walked past mostly because of her marching and the other because for once she was in flat DM creepers not her platforms so they saw her at her full height.

Her cheerful mood vanished when she walked into the containment room where Loki was being held,

"Good morning Miss Rose" he said smiling at her,

"What do you want?" she asked folding her arms impatiently

"I am willing to tell you everything, all of Apocalypses plans"

Vivian looked at him suspiciously "And what's the catch?"

"Your _services"_ the way he said that and the creepy smirk on his face told her it wasn't the services she was proud of,

"Sorry my services include gambling, hacking and destruction, the services you're after you should have asked for Alice" she corrected bitterly,

"I don't want Alice, I wanted you"

"Nope. Not going to happen"

"So you don't care what happens to the world?" Loki questioned,

"Not really. The idiots here can save themselves and mankind could do with a clean up" she shrugged nonchalantly,

"And what about the man you snuck off to England to meet? Do you not care what happens to him?" Loki watched with amusement as he struck a nerve with the small woman "I can easily send the horsemen over to England"

Vivian laughed suddenly, clutching her side "O I doubt that. I mean since they left you behind I'd hazard a guess that they don't need you anymore. So your threats are invalid" Vivian unfolded her arms to stretch them "So unless you have something worthwhile to say, I'll be going back to work" she said turning on heels to walk away

"I believe interrogating me was your work"

Vivian cringed '_damn he's right'_ she glanced over her shoulder back at the god "Look if you want sex that much I'll get Alice to find you a hooker"

"I beg your pardon?"

"A hooker. A whore. A prostitute"

Vivian left the room frustrated and soon found Alice in the canteen with a Steve, Stark and Banner.

"I need you to do me a favour" she stated sitting down with coffee and a cupcake,

"I hate it you say it, the last time you asked me for a favour it resulted in high jacking a police car and filling it with fireworks before rolling it down a hill"

"It was fourth of July! And your birthday! I was celebrating in style" Vivian reminded licking the icing off the cupcake before eating the cake base

"Didn't have anything to do with the fact you were plastered either?"

"Anyway! Where can I find a hooker?"

That was the least likely question to ever come out of Vivian's mouth, everyone almost chocked "Not for me you twit" she snapped, "Loki agreed to reveal all of Apocalypses plans under the precedent of him getting laid"

"I heard that he requested you personally for that job" Barton chipped in with a smirk, leaning on the back of Vivian's chair, she cringed looking up at the master sniper

"It's not polite to eavesdrop. I'm not sleeping with him just for some information, the world can burn for all I care" she huffed draining the rest of her coffee.

* * *

"Surely the 'high class' girls would have their own websites" I said,

"Not that you'd know anything about that" Vivian laughed making everyone look at me,

"I have never been a prostitute" I said calmly, "So how are we going to find him a lady of the night?" I asked, "I mean it's not like we can let him out of his snow globe"

"Snow globe?" Banner asked looking at Vivian,

"I found a tub of glitter decided to make him pretty" she said taking another sip of her coffee, "We could always go round with a picture and bring the girls here. I'll bet SHIELD has some super secret brainwashing stuff" Vivian said looking at Barton in particular,

"Does any of this strike you as insane?" Stark asked

"Insane is my middle name" Vivian said, "Hers is Liberty"

"Your middle name is Liberty and you were born on the fourth of July?" Stark laughed

"Whatever I have come to terms with my wildly unoriginal mother, so we just need to get a picture of him that doesn't look too creepy so we can get him a girl. No problem" I left the table with Vivian and headed back to Loki's snow globe,

"Oh you've come back?" He said looking at Vivian making her shiver, "With a friend to preserve your dignity?"

"Actually she's going to take a picture of you and we're going to look for a lovely lady of the night to bring back for you" Vivian said cheerily

"A what?" he was obviously confused

"She means a prostitute. We're gonna take a picture then we can show it to a girl she'll give us her rate and we'll bring her to you" I said holding my phone up to Loki, "Now smile bitch" I commanded as I snapped a picture.

Thankfully it wasn't too creepy. He actually looked like a sane person and not a spoilt little bitch who wanted to dominate mankind just because Daddy didn't love him as much as his brother, "Fabulous" I said putting my phone back in my pocket, "Now do you have any preferences or any weird kinks I should know about?"

"How can you be so blasé about all this?" Loki asked,

"Honey sex is second nature to me. I've been doing it since I was fourteen"

"Slut" Vivian coughed

"Frigid" I said bluntly, "Now physical type and kinks"

"Someone like her" Loki said pointing at Vivian,

"So short with a bad temper and an over fondness for whiskey got it. And no kinks?"

"No" Loki said

"Alrighty well we'll have to wait till later to get your lady friend since by their nature they don't come out during the day and the ones that do aren't exactly class A material" I said walking off with Vivian,

"So we're really going to find him a hooker?" she asked, "I've never picked one up before, how do you do it exactly?"

"It's easy. You walk up to her ask how much for an hour or however long you want and she'll tell you and if you agree to her terms you find an alley somewhere push her against the wall and don't kiss her on the mouth" I said, "They don't like that"

"You seem so well versed in the world of street walkers" Vivian said

"I got a guy laid for his sweet sixteenth" I said, "I was dating his friend and they were to chicken to go and talk to the girl so I did it. So I'm going to drop you at the lab and then I'm going shopping. I'm not suited for these harsh New York autumns and I need warmer clothes"

"Didn't you _just_ go shopping the other day?"

"Yes but a girl can never have too many clothes" I said as we passed the lab, "I'll be back in about an hour"

"See you"

"Are you really going to pick up a hooker?" Steve asked as I passed him in the hall

"I am. If getting that idiot laid will get him to tell us all his secrets then I'm for it. Now unless you're coming shopping with me I bid you adieu" I said brushing past Steve and heading back out of the base

* * *

"Got any information yet?" Tony asked as Vivian walked into the lab carrying three cups of coffee setting them on the desk where there was space

"No, Ali is going to pick up his fling later, then I get information." Vivian said claiming a cup of coffee,

"Would have been easier if you'd just slept with him"

Vivian scowled at Stark before continuing her work on the floor,

"We have desks"

"Does everything I do bug you?" She snapped at the billionaire,

"You're just making the place look messy"

"I don't see there being a problem" Banner defended her

"Thank you Dr Banner" she smiled, pulling a face at Stark.

Vivian seemed to end up as the bringer of food for the lab, as she as soon went to go get more coffee Stark gave her a list so she asked the doctor if he wanted anything bringing back. So off she went, passing the confinement room poking her head in Loki was just sat looking pretty bored. Despite him being evil, she did feel a bit sorry for him she made two trips to the canteen. The first trip involved a cup of coffee, a cupcake and a book, which she delivered quietly to the cage opening the doors enough to put the items in then closing them to return to the canteen for everything else.

"Took your time" Stark complained, taking the sandwich and coffee he'd asked her to bring,

"So get it yourself next time" she replied placing the doctor's sandwich on the desk,

"Thank you Vivian." Banner thanked looking up from his work,

"At least someone has manners" Vivian sat back on the floor with coffee and a cupcake.

"Is that all you're having for lunch?" Banner asked, watching her dismantle the cupcake, she nodded, the doctor walked over to her and handed her half of his sandwich "a cupcake is a dessert not a main meal"

"But-"

The doctor took no excuse leaving Vivian with half of the sandwich. They ate then carried on with work. Vivian was concentrating on creating more bullets for Alice and Black widow since she had requested some too. Her nose twitched, she simply sniffed which sorted it out for a few seconds before she sneezed into a small pot of gunpowder which created a small plume of black smoke. She scurried away from the mess coughing painfully,

"Bless you" Banner knelt beside her rubbing her back "look at me for a minute" her checked her eyes, he could see traces of the gunpowder she'd been using in them, "Tony get me some water" he looked back at Vivian who was still coughing and spluttering "how do you feel?"

"I have a cracking headache and feel like I've swallowed sandpaper other than that I feel fine" she said between coughs. Tony reappeared with the water. A whole jug of it which he practically chucked over her

"That is for hacking my computers." he said

Vivian blinked the water from her eyes which on the bright side cleared them of the remaining gunpowder, and then she started laughing which then turned into a painful coughing fit then more laughing

"You are such a child at times" she mused trying to ignore the pain in her chest,

"Come on we need to get you outside for some air," Bruce helped Vivian to her feet and guided her to the deck.

* * *

I returned later in the evening with 'Candi', who had agreed to be Loki's date for the evening,

"This is a strange place" she said

"Yeah it's also pretty secret so don't tell any of your friends"

"Sure thing" I took 'Candi' down to the containment cell,

"This is you. Candi, Loki. Loki, Candi. Have fun" I opened the door a little to let Candi through, "oh and Candi this is his first time"

"That's ok. I specialize in first times"

"Great" I picked up all my bags and headed back to the lab where I knew I'd find Vivian,

"Oh you're back! Great" Vivian said, "Did you get my hoodie?"

"Of course" I took out a men's large hoodie from one of my many bags, "got you a hat and scarf as well" I pulled out a Tom Baker-esque striped scarf and a 'Skellanimals' hat which had long rabbit ears and a skull face,

"Great! Now I'm all set for winter!" Vivian said wrapping her scarf around her. Even after wrapping it several times around herself the scarf still trailed on the ground much to Stark's amusement,

"Well if no one minds I'm gonna leave these bags here cause I have to take Candi home when they're done in the snow globe" I left my bags under the desk Vivian was most fond of sleeping under and headed to the gym

When I got back from the gym I noticed Steve was in the lab with the others,

_"Probably looking for me"_ I thought although the closer I got to the lab the more of the conversation I could hear,

"Honestly Rodgers. A good looking girl like that and you haven't had her flat on her back screaming your name" everyone else in the lab shifted uncomfortably, "Does she not do it for you?" Stark continued

"Not that anyone else's love life is any of your business" I decided to intervene to save everyone else's sanity,

"Oh good maybe you can explain things" Stark said

"Give me an hour I'll explain everything" I said grabbing Steve by the front of his t-shirt and dragging him off with me

An hour later and I was exhausted. My physical excursions had taken their toll not to mention my legs felt like jelly,

"That was -" Steve started

"Amazing I know. I'm just that good" I laughed pulling my underpants and jeans back on, "You're a real boy now Steve" I joked; "Now where did that bra go?" I picked up my blouse and my bra fell out of it, "ah there it is" after I re dressed I fixed my hair and waited for Steve to dress.

As soon as I opened the door I was hit by streamers,

"Mazaltoph!" Vivian yelled, "Congratulations on becoming a man Cap!"

"Vivian!" I chastised

"Alice!" She mimicked, "Loki's done so you need to take Candi back to her corner"

"Right off I go. We'll continue this later" I said to Steve before walking off to escort Candi home


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Sixteen:**

Vivian and Alice travelled together to Shield, heading straight to the containment room on Fury's orders. From half down the corridor they heard a familiarly loud laugh, "It's too early to deal with him" Vivian groaned,

Thor was stood outside the cage listening to Loki brag about his previous evening adventure

"You are finally a man!"

Loki noticed the two ladies walking towards the cage,

"Good morning ladies" he smiled,

"So now you finally got laid are you finally going to stop bitching and go back to being a normal person?" Alice asked sternly,

"Okay that's enough idle chitchat for me" Vivian chipped in "I kept my end of the bargain now out with the info" she ordered

Loki smirked at her

"Well technically you didn't so-" he was cut short by a sudden volt of electricity

"Information. Now" she glared, repeatedly pressing the 'zap button'

"Okay Viv, calm down" Alice removed the tablet from the small girls hands and passed it over to Thor who looked it bewildered "Keep that out of her reach"

"That's easy" Thor couldn't help but laugh as Vivian jumped to try and reach her tablet which Thor kept well out of her reach,

"Give it back!"

"Vivian Rose! Work! Do it" Alice ordered pulling one end of Vivian's super long scarf almost choking her

"Alright already don't need to choke me" she hissed back loosing the scarf around her neck,

"I have to admit that was pretty cute" Loki mused, why was it Gods just seemed to pick on her? The dark haired god chuckled at her angry face "Forgive Miss Rose. I suppose I should keep my end of the deal shouldn't I?"

"Yes you should" she frowned,

"Well, the horseman Pestilence is a critical part of his plans. He plans to infect all humanity with a deadly disease and offer a cure only to those who will follow him."

"Right so it would be best to go after Polaris first" Vivian mumbled already in strategy mode,

Loki knocked on the cage wall "So am I allowed to come out?"

"Not my jurisdiction, ask Fury"

"Vivian" Alice warned,

"Alright I'll go ask, but is this twit going to give me my tablet back first?" she asked, Thor still playing keep away with the electronic device,

"Thor, give it back"

"But I was having most fun with the game of keep away" Thor handed the tablet back to the little British woman who quickly took her leave to the Command centre.

"Director" she called out the intimidating bald man,

"Ah Miss Rose, not causing trouble today?"

"No sir. I've finished my interrogation and basically we need to find Pestilence before she starts infecting the world. Oh and Loki wants to know if he can come out of his cage? But heck I don't care. I'll leave on that notion" she made a very brief and quick report and vacated towards the lab.

"I think you need to get a smaller scarf" Tony pointed out as Vivian's scarf got caught in the sliding door,

Vivian quickly freed herself and checked the computers

"We need to find Pestilence"

"Because Thor's little brother said so?" Stark asked

"Because Apocalypse is going to use her to infect the entire world offering to cure the ones that bow down to him." she turned to look at Stark who was stood doing nothing "so do something"

* * *

"So I have a question" I said to Loki

"Are you wondering perhaps why I chose Miss Rose over you?"

"Hell no. I have me a boyfriend which am sure you know. I wanted to know actually why Viv"

"I'm not sure what it is. Something about her just appeals to me" Loki said

"It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that she's adopted and you're adopted and she has a readiness for torture and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you do too?" Loki shifted uncomfortably, "Well if I was you I wouldn't get my hopes up. She already has eyes for someone here"

"The ferret admires someone?" Thor asked, "Who?"

"Like I'm really going to say. She'd kill me! And I'm far too pretty to die" I said dramatically

"Miss Winters" came the voice of Nick Fury through the earpiece I was required to wear, "our guest has been very helpful. I think you should let him go"

"It's your lucky day" I said to Loki pressing the release button on the control panel, "looks like you were a helpful boy so you get to come out and play with the big boys"

Loki stepped out of his cage and was immediately embraced by Thor,

"It is good to have you back brother"

"Well it looks like you two have a lot of catching up to do. I think I'll go make sure Vivian isn't caught in a doorway somewhere" taking quick leave of the brothers I headed straight for the lab to let Vivian know Loki was free.

I found her hard at work tracking Pestilence along with Stark and Banner so I pulled her quickly to one side and told her Loki was free,

"As long as he isn't bothering me I couldn't give a rat's hairy ass what he does"

"Alright. I'll let you get back to work" no sooner had I uttered the words when something pinged in the lab,

"We found her!" Stark called, "it looks like Loki was right and Apocalypse is going to use her to infect the populous"

"Then we had better stop him" Thor said standing in the doorway with Loki at his side

"You said it. And no offence ladies but you should probably stay here and work on a way to snap this kid out of whatever Apocalypse has done to her"

"Not that I'll be much help either way here" I said under my breath

"You might actually. Is that Summers boy still around" Banner said

"No he went back to Westchester"

"We might need him"

"Right. Alice go fetch" I sighed zipping up my Dad's hunting jacket and leaving the lab to head off to Westchester like a good errand girl, "I seriously need a new gig"

* * *

"Don't die" Vivian waved off the Avengers as they set off to go apprehend Polaris; she turned back to doctor Banner "so where the hell do we start?"

"we have a few samples of the virus from those who got infected by her the first time, so far two of them have died, the virus spreads through the body slowly but isn't contagious"

Vivian tapped her foot as she thought of various scenarios "what has the med bay tried?" the doctor drew up the list that the doctors in the medical bay had issued to the patients, "mostly painkillers. I'm going to go take a personal look" the pair walked into the sick back, two nurses were present and greeted them nervously as they walked in,

"We need to know what's been administrated to the patients from the attack and were the results"

"O-of course Doctor Banner" Vivian could tell that some people were still uneasy around the good doctor because of his other side, Bruce was reading some of the notes the nurse had handed him and Vivian inspected some patients

Most of the patients were under a high dose of painkiller so they were very dazed. A high fever was present in all of them too. One patient caught her attention, despite his severely high fever his skin was pale almost blue in colour, she noticed a thick silvery substance on the back of his neck. She collared over the one of the nurses

"Was this here before?" the nurse shook her head "check the other patients for anything similar" Vivian said rising to her feet.

The nurse stood her ground against the small scientist

"We were told not to touch or move patients unless necessary" Vivian frowned at the nurse.

"Fear of infection?" the nurse nodded "hate to break it to you but if it were contagious you'd already be infected working in such a tiny place so since it's not contagious get the other nurse to help and get moving" she repeated this time more sternly

"R-right," the blond nurse she was talking to instructed her colleague to help. Vivian watched like a hawk just to make sure they weren't doing it half arsed.

She turned her attention to the current patient she was observing surprised to notice that the silvery substance had spread to under the man's jaw, '_that was only five minutes'_ she frowned retrieving some medical equipment from the doctor's desk. Crouching back down the mass had spread slightly onto his face and down his neck, she tapped the substance with a scalpel it made a typical metal sound but it didn't match up to the overall properties of the substance, it was more like liquid metal. It became more apparent that this was no ordinary virus when Vivian tried to take a sample, the metal bubbled before spreading rapidly across the face, leaving the mouth uncovered.

"Bruce, we got a slight problem" she announced, bringing the recent events to his attention,

"What happened?"

"Hell if I know but I think this virus is going to more problematic than I originally thought" Vivian sighed, turning to the nurses "New job for you both, blood samples of everyone that got infected"

The two nurses looked at each other

"No, I don't want to get infected by whatever that is. You said it wasn't contagious"

"It probably isn't, but you know that's what gloves are for" Vivian scowled holding up her gloved hands "found them on the doctor's desk ... but you should know that. You fucking work in here" she half shouted at the incompetent women, who quickly moved after that, "and remember to label the vials" she reminded knowing if she didn't they would probably have a box of unmarked blood samples.

"This is nothing like I've ever seen before" Banner said, somewhat in awe of the virus. The metal substance had stopped spreading and faded black,

Vivian checked his pulse "He's dead"

Banner noticed the substance had harden and carefully pried it off revealing face with no eyeballs, skinless and the muscle had been only half dissolved

"Holy shit"

"Looks like this is a little more dangerous that we presumed" Bruce turned to the nurses who had just finished the blood samples, "if you see anything that looks like this on any of these patients you contact Miss Rose or myself in the lab straight away. Check them at five minute intervals, that's how long it takes to spread roughly. Do not touch it" he warned, the nurses took his words very seriously, they looked scared shitless of him,

'_He wouldn't hurt a fly.'_ Vivian thought grabbing the blood samples from the nurses and following Bruce out of the medical bay with the metal facemask

"We've got a lot to do"

* * *

I was in a foul mood all the way to Westchester something it didn't take a mind reader to pick up on as Xavier pointed out to me while we waited on Alexander Summers to respond to his summons,

"What is it that seems to be troubling you?" he asked

"It's just that ever since I joined SHIELD it seems like I'm only bailing out Viv when she's in trouble, which I don't really mind doing I mean she's practically family, and running errands for Fury. I mean Vivian made me all these amazing bullets and a bulletproof vest and the most use I'm going to get out of them is scaring off muggers and laughing if someone tries to shoot me and it bounces off the vest" I said folding my arms with a huff,

"Have you spoken to anyone about these concerns?" Xavier asked

"How can I when everyone is on high alert because of Apocalypse?" I said as the door opened and Alexander stood in the doorway,

"You wanted to see me Professor?"

"Yes Miss Winters has some good news. SHIELD has found Lorna"

"They have!"

"Yes and we'd like you to come in. Our science team thinks you'll be of use in trying to get her back to normal" I explained

"Let me get my coat!" Alexander said rushing to grab a jacket,

"I guess I'll see you when we get the kid back" I said

"Please keep me informed"

"You got it. Let's go kid" I said zipping up my jacket again and as soon as we got out I turned the collar up against the wind. The sky overhead was grey and foreboding and I just knew it was going to pour from the heavens.

When Alexander and I got back to SHIELD I dropped him off at the lab and headed to the firing range to take out some of my aggression when that didn't work I headed to the gym and beat the crap out of a punching bag.

It was getting late and I knew Vivian and Banner would be busy all evening so I thought I'd better head home instead of hanging around until she finished, I avoided everyone as I made my way through the base and headed out into the frigid October air,

"Hey what's wrong" Steve asked catching up to me as I left the base,

"Nothing I just need some fresh air" I said taking a cigarette out of my bag, "and I know how contradictory it is to say I want fresh air and pull out a cigarette. I'm annoyed and when I'm annoyed I smoke" I said shielding my lighter from the harsh unrelenting rain

"So what are you annoyed about?"

"This whole special agent thing" I said taking a long drag from my cigarette,

"What's annoying you about it?"

"The fact that I'm not really an agent. I'm an errand girl. I mean I know why, I don't have any special skills, I'm not a sharp shooter or a 'superhero' and I'm not like Vivian I don't have an extensive knowledge of computers or science. I can hunt and shoot sure but no better than anyone who grew up learning to hunt and shoot. I don't follow orders well and I have problems with authority. Fury said he hired me because I don't back down but he has a whole organisation of people who don't back down so why the hell does he need me? Answer he doesn't. I run errands and make sure Vivian doesn't kill herself or everyone around her but he doesn't even need me for that anymore because I'm pretty sure Banner will keep an eye on her and when this is all over and Apocalypse is dead or gone or whatever what use will I be then?" I stubbed out my cigarette, "I should just cut my loses and leave"

"But what about us?"

"Wake up Steve. There is no 'us' I'm wasting time with you as long as I'm in New York because you piss off Vivian less"

"I don't believe you"

"Believe what you want but ask yourself this. What would a girl like me see in a straight edged guy like you?" I spat, "You're the lesser as it were of two evils"

"You're just saying these things to get me to hate you so you can run away"

"Who's running? I know when I'm not wanted Steve. I knew it at sixteen and I know it now" I yelled tears pricking at the corners of my eyes blurring my vision

"Is that what this is about? You don't think you're wanted?"

"I know it" I said as the tears began to flow down my cheeks smudging my mascara. I left the shelter I was standing under and pulled the collar of my Dad's old hunting jacket up to protect from the rain. Not that it did much good I still got soaked and the wind blew the soaking hair that had come loose from the ponytail I'd tied it in everywhere,

"Alice wait!" Steve yelled

"Why? So Fury can send me on another errand?" I yelled back

"No because I want you to stay"

"That is not an incentive. Sex is sex you can get it anywhere" I scoffed as Steve caught up to me and put his hand on my arm,

"That's not why I want you to stay" he said softly brushing a strand of hair from my face, "I want you to stay because I care about you"

My heart leapt into my throat. No one had ever told me that before. Ever,

"You care? How can you care for me? You hardly know me!" I protested,

"Well I don't know what to tell you. I care about you and that is the honest and unshakable truth, regardless of what I may or may not know about you"

"I've never really cared about anybody except Vivian" I said swallowing the lump in my throat

"That's because you don't let yourself feel" Steve said,

"I'm afraid" I admitted,

"I know. It's ok" Steve said cupping my face with his hand before leaning down and pressing his lips against mine and for the first time I felt something, "come on let's get you inside before you catch cold"

"Ok" I agreed letting Steve take me back inside,

_"Someone actually cares about me" _the thought made me smile. Maybe I would stick around after all

* * *

The science pair had been extremely busy with their work; Vivian had volunteered to be the one to run back and forth to the med bay when the staff called them. The virus had proceeded slower when a certain antibody was administrated. The metal they had recovered was bio-organic; it had traces of neurotoxins in the core, which could paralyze the host, which would allow the virus to evolve for the purpose of taking over the body before the body died of course, though this was only a speculation.

Vivian was exhausted when Alice appeared with the boy from the Xavier institute, she was in a foul mood speaking few words to her and left briskly. "I'm glad you're here, the progress on the antivirus is going well but it's useless unless we can reverse the brainwashing" Bruce explained to the teen, the team had finally succeeded in apprehending Pestilence late into the evening. She was strapped down to an operating table which sent Havoc into a tantrum

"What are you doing?"

"She's still dangerous kid" Stark stated removing his damaged armour for Vivian to issue the vaccine she insisted

"But she's unconscious" Havoc argued, earning a well deserved slap

"All you do is whine; pipe down for like five god damn minutes. Dr Banner is taking precautions." Vivian turned to the two gods impatiently, "arm" she ordered issuing them the vaccine too.

"Maybe you should go home Vivian" Bruce said to her as she cleared the used needles away, "But-" Bruce looked up from pestilence as he hooked her up to a monitoring machine, "all that's left is to wait for her to wake up. There's no need for us both to stay"

Vivian felt a little hurt, feeling like she was only needed when there was work to be done. That's all she was a work partner.

"Yeah I suppose" she mumbled grabbing her bag and left the lab down heartedly.

* * *

Vivian was in a pretty bad mood herself when she came home later that evening,

"What's up?" I asked so Vivian poured out her heart and told me how she felt Banner only wanted her around when there was work to be done and not a second longer, "I don't know what to tell you. I mean I know you like him -" Vivian spluttered, "Don't even try to deny it. I have a sixth sense about these things"

"So what does your sixth sense tell you about all this then?"

"I think you should go back tomorrow and see what happens. Don't give up just yet. Now get some sleep. You know you don't work well tired"

"Yes ma'am" Vivian said trudging off to bed

"Poor girl" I said, "I might need to have a word with the dishy doc. But it's a problem for another day" I was exhausted so I too headed for bed and almost as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Seventeen:**

While Stark, Banner and Vivian worked on un brainwashing Polaris with Alexander's help. Steve, Thor, Natasha, Clint, Agent Hill and Fury all had a big pow wow about what to do with Loki now he was on 'our' side leaving me the only one not at the pow wow to babysit said demi god.

Needless to say my foul mood from the day before was back with a vengeance which again didn't take a mind reader to pick up on,

"What has you in such a foul mood?" Loki asked. We were sitting in the canteen while everyone had their pow wow

"Don't take this the wrong way cause I'm glad you're on 'our' side now but why the hell am I the one who's stuck playing babysitter?"

"I did ask if Miss Rose would sit with me but I hear she declined rather verbally" I remembered Fury asking her this morning and Vivian stomped off cursing and swearing about 'puny gods'

"Yeah she's not a morning person" I laughed, "I'm a tad confused as to why I'm even babysitting in the first place. I mean I'm not exactly native" I continued

"I noticed. South Carolina wasn't it?" Loki asked

"Very good who did you ask?"

"Thor"

"Yeah I had to explain it to him" I said slumping down in my chair, "So I suppose you want to see the sights"

"Actually I'd prefer to stay here" Loki said with a glance towards the door

"If you're waiting for her to come in I wouldn't hold out much hope I already told you she has eyes for someone else"

"But you won't tell me who"

"Because I like my face the way it is" I said standing up and stretching, "right well there's no point moping around here. Might as well go and get lost. Come along then" so Loki and I left the base and headed out into the city and thankfully he had the sense to change from his armour and curtain into a suit with a green scarf so we wouldn't stand out.

Or at least that was the intention. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that

* * *

It was hard to un-brainwash a person that was unconscious. Vivian had left the lab to check on the patients in the med bay. She walked past the canteen noticing a still very grumpy Alice sat talking to Loki who noticed her as she walked by. Most of the patients were recovering, the fever had gone down and only one patient had reached the stage of secreting the metal substance and he was still unconscious. The antivirus they had created was a success. Vivian had earned some respect among the nurses, they did constantly seem to ask if she felt safe around doctor Banner with which she always replied 'yes' he hasn't as terrifying as people were led to believe. Though it was obvious they didn't believe her.

"Miss Rose" one nurse called, the one patient that had shown signs of the metal stage had woken up.

Vivian sat down next to him and took his pulse

"What's your name?" she asked knowing full well what his name was,

"Cameron Klein" he answered slowly, watching the small woman inspect the slivery patch on his wrist

"This might be a little difficult but don't touch this at all under any circumstance" no sooner had she said those words Klein's hand wrapped itself tightly around her arm digging his drill like nails into her skin drawing blood. The metal substance had spread quickly across the agents hand and half way up his arm, "shit" Vivian cursed under her breath as of yet they hadn't found a way to stop the metal infection after it started moving she took matter into her own hands "Sedate him and we're going to amputate his arm to stop the infection spreading." the nurse that was present issued the sedative whilst the doctor prepared the equipment.

They had to work fast before the infection spread to his torso. Vivian couldn't do much with the vice like grip around her wrist, when the doctor had sawed through the bone; Vivian was left with half an arm hanging off her arm.

The metal part was pried off and stored in a used organ storage container; she quickly set to filing down the sharp pieces of bones before moulding the skin and muscle over the stump.

"Now you best get your wound looked at" the nurse joked gesturing to Vivian's lower arm and hand which had several small puncture wounds,

"I'll be fine with some plasters" she laughed noticing she was now slightly covered in blood she was going to need to invest in a pair of new jeans.

The other patients had seen the shocking turn of events and scrutinizing the small scientist as she walked out the room, rolling down her sleeves over her arms. By the time she reached the lab again, Havoc was clutching Polaris's hand crying,

"What happened?" Vivian asked Tony who was stood back from the table,

"I have no idea actually, kid just sat there talking nonstop for like forty minutes while you were off slacking somewhere and she just woke up"

"Sounds like Disney material" she joked,

"Where were you anyway?" Stark asked noticing her blood splattered jeans and shirt,

"I was in the med bay and we had to amputate an arm to stop the infection killing him"

Doctor Banner joined the conversation leaving Havoc to talk to the dazed Polaris

"Now this is sorted you should go get some rest" he looked at the state of the British girl "And change apparently"

Vivian opened her mouth to argue but she didn't bother and left grabbing her bag on the way past.

"Works over. Not needed" she huffed, putting her headphones on as she walked through the base "Best go buy new jeans so I don't look like a murder" she thought aloud.

* * *

_**# Who's strong and brave here to save the American way?**__ Not all of us can storm a beach, or ride a tank, but there still a way all of us can help. __**Who likes to fight for what's right like a man for what's right night and day? #**_

"Hello? Vivian?" I asked flipping open my phone, it wasn't often she called me while she was working,

_"Are you in the city?" _she asked sounding very upset

"Yeah I'm showing the butt hurt god around" Loki cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy,

_"In the mood I'm in I'll even put up with him"_ Vivian said

"Where do you want me to meet you?"

_"I'll find you"_ she said hanging up the phone,

"Word of advice for when she does show up. Don't be all 'my one true love' you'll scare her away" I said to Loki who seemed to brighten up.

It only took Vivian five minutes to catch up to us and she wore a face like thunder. Something obviously was wrong, "What happened? The girl still brainwashed?" I asked

"No she came out of it when her prince kissed her" Vivian scowled

"So what's the problem?" I asked

"I don't want to talk about it" she said, "I need new jeans, these are kind of destroyed" she said,

"Well you'll have to get them on your own or bring him with you. I have an appointment to keep" I said

"Fine. Come on" Vivian stomped off with Loki on her heels while I headed towards Central Park where I was supposed to meet a man who would give me something that would embarrass the hell out of Steve and give me a laugh and a Halloween costume for years to come,

"Are you Southern Belle?" a man asked once I reached the specified bench just outside the penguin house,

"I am. Are you OldRepublic75"

"I am"

"Great! Can I see it?" the man took a large parcel out of his backpack and unwrapped the brown paper around it revealing one of the star spangled dancing girl outfits from Steve's heyday, "Amazing! It's in such good condition"

"It belonged to my Grandma she was really proud of it" the guy said, "Can I ask why you want it in the first place"

"It's a running gag with my boyfriend and I" I said taking some cash from my purse and handing it to the man,

"Thanks" he said pocketing the cash and walking off leaving me with my new outfit, sending a quick text to Vivian I headed back to the apartment to try it on and make sure that when I saw Steve later that he got a real shock.

I let myself into the apartment and changed into my new outfit letting my hair hang down loose around my shoulders. When I exited the bedroom I noticed some things on the floor that shouldn't be there, there was also a slight trail of green slime around the window, I grabbed my gun and my phone and quickly dialled Vivian who picked up on the first ring,

_"Thank god! Are you done with whatever you were doing? Cause well ..."_

"We have a problem. How fast can you and Loki get to the apartment?"

_"It'll take us about fifteen minutes why" _

"There's green slime all around the window and it looks like people have knocked things over and tried to put them back so we wouldn't notice they'd been moved. Something's going on"

_"We're on our way. I'm calling SHIELD as well" _

"Hurry" I snapped the phone shut and loading my gun with the special armour piercing bullets Vivian made for me edged towards the window

* * *

"What happened? The girl still brainwashed?" Alice asked as Vivian caught up with the pair

"No she came out of it when her prince kissed her" Vivian scowled

"So what's the problem?" she asked back,

"I don't want to talk about it" she said, "I need new jeans, these are kind of destroyed" she said,

"Well you'll have to get them on your own or bring him with you. I have an appointment to keep" Alice said

"Fine. Come on" she huffed walking off with Loki at her heels.

"You seem angry" Loki stated obviously

"Captain obvious" she led Loki to a shop labelled 'Hot Topic' "don't touch anything" she warned as she went straight to the jean section of the shop "Ah Christ, would be the case not in my size" she huffed,

Loki watched the small woman browse through the rails; she ended with skinny tartan trousers, a torn black top with tons of safety pins and a new black blazer. She ended up wearing them out of the shop chucking her blood stained clothes into the nearest bin, wrapping her super long scarf around her when the cold wind hit her "I hate cold weather" she huffed, "So Loki, where did she show you?" she pulled her skelanimal rabbit hat on protecting her ears from the cold, he was amazed she called him by name unlike Alice who had this strange habit of calling him 'the butt hurt god'

"Times square, Soho and the village?" he answered, looking at Vivian who was staring at the sky looking a bit forlorn "are you-" cut off by the sound of his stomach growling loudly. She stared at him with surprise and slowly started to giggle before laughing out loud,

"Hungry?" she asked with a smile across her face,

"Captain obvious?" he reused her statement from earlier sending her into another fit of laughter, which made him smile at her,

"Anything you want to try?" she questioned looking at him when spoke rather than off into the distance

"My brother has told me much but I will leave the decision to you, Miss Rose"

"Miss Rose? What am I your teacher? Vivian is fine" Vivian complained, "Well there's a nice cafe round here somewhere" Vivian led the Norse god to a small cafe wedged between a fancy clothes shop and a star bucks. The sweet smell of pastries filled the air and the sound of jazz could be heard. Loki stared at the horde of cakes and pastries in one of the cabinets with awe "They do sandwiches and things" she noticed he wasn't interested in 'proper' food "cakes it is then, that's my kind of lunch she laughed walking over to the counter ordering a mixed platter of pastries and two coffees. When the cakes arrived he asked the names of each one.

"Vivian" Loki stared at her as she dismantled a cream puff "I apologise for my actions at the shield base"

Vivian thought back for a moment "don't sweat it" she said eating the cream with a spoon

"No I must apologise, it was shameful of me to ask that of you." Vivian couldn't believe he was being so sincere, "You clearly have more self-respect than that Candi woman"

she couldn't help but chuckle "I think you have the wrong conception of me, not as bad as Alice or Candi but I can still count the men I've slept with on one hand. Just forget about it."

They left the cafe full from cakes, Loki grabbed her wrist and stared down at her, '_he has nice eyes'_ she thought getting caught in them,

"Vivian, can I ask-"

"Hold that thought" she said as her phone buzzed loudly in her pocket answering it on the first ring

"Thank god! Are you done with whatever you were doing? Cause well ..."

_"We have a problem. How fast can you and Loki get to the apartment?"_

"It'll take us about fifteen minutes why"

_"There's green slime all around the window and it looks like people have knocked things over and tried to put them back so we wouldn't notice they'd been moved. Something's going on"_

"We're on our way. I'm calling SHIELD as well"

_"Hurry"_

"Move it Loki, we need to get back to my apartment" Vivian dialled the Shield base and explained the situation. It was lucky that they weren't that far from the complex. Vivian almost barrelled the door down to be greeted with green slime everywhere and a tall willowy figure in a star spangled show girl outfit "Oh Alice you're alright! For a moment there I thought that Rodgers had turned into a woman."

"Viv you're back," in the corner there was a black heap covered in the same green slime "I think I might have killed him"

Vivian ran into her room and reappeared with a white lab coat and a large box of first aid equipment. She rolled the six armed man over onto his back finding his pulse it was low, barely even there, "Don't just stand there! I need a bowl of hot water" she ordered checking the body, several well aimed shots to his legs and torso had incapacitated him. Her main thought was remove the bullet **before** shield gets here because the contents of those bullets would get her into a lot of trouble.

"Looks my armour piercing rounds worked then"

"Super effective" Alice stated putting her gun down,

"I'm glad you're alright" Vivian said looking at her good friend who was miraculously in one piece "should I start calling you Lady Liberty? you can be Captain Americas lady fighting partner" she joked removing another bullet from the body. Bandages were applied to famine as the Shield team arrived. Steve burst through the door with fear on his face then caught one glimpse of Alice and went bright red,

"I'd say he likes that outfit" Vivian laughed tightening one last bandage.

* * *

Vivian continued to pull the bullets out of 'famine' while the rest of SHIELD poured into my apartment,

"Nice dress" Stark said swaggering through my door,

"It'll look even better on the floor don't you think?" I wasn't going to be intimidated or embarrassed by my outfit

"So what exactly happened here?" Nick Fury asked

"Was in the city. Bought a dress. Came home to try on said dress. Noticed green slime around my window and things were out of place. Investigated. Found that. Shot it. Got scratched. Vivian and Daddy Issues arrived and Vivian is examining the damage" I explained

"You'll need to get that checked" Banner said looking at my arm

"Ha ha no" I said sarcastically, "Last time I went to that med bay she tazered me and I almost attacked a nurse. And had to be carried out kicking and screaming"

Stark opened his mouth to speak but I glared at him and he shut it quickly,

"You wouldn't be going to the med bay. It's full up and the nurses have their hands full with the patients they do have. If you let me I'll have a look now" Banner said

"Fine. You can look in my room" I took Banner into my room and let him look at the scratch on my arm,

"Looks harmless enough"

"But things that look harmless aren't always so" I said making Banner laugh, "Can I ask. In confidence. Doctor, Patient confidentiality and all that. What is your honest opinion of Vivian?"

"She's an exceptional young woman. Very bright and extremely dedicated to her work"

"That's not what I meant" I said seriously, "that girl cares about you. She's never cared about anyone in her life. She and I are similar in that respect and I'm asking you now. Outright. Do you care about her?"

Banner didn't speak for a moment

"Vivian is a complicated young woman. She has a work ethic unlike anyone I've ever seen before. She's driven and like I say exceptionally bright. She's also outgoing and she cares a great deal about those people who have been injured thus far by Apocalypse's plans. She also has a childish streak and sometimes behaves like a teenager"

"Which I'm sure you've realised has more to it than it seems"

"Yes I noticed that when General Rose made his appearance"

"So the answer to my question?"

"I do care about her but I don't want to get her involved in any of this" he said gesturing to himself

"Trust me that girl can handle herself" I said standing up from the bed, "They'll be wondering what's going on. Just where do you think you're putting that needle!" I yelled prompting Banner to take a small needle out of his jacket and for Steve to come barrelling through the door probably afraid of what would happen should I make the good Doctor lose his temper,

"I'll just go see what progress has been made outside" Banner said slipping out of the room and closing the door,

"So do you like the dress?" I asked brightly changing the subject completely

"Where did you get it?"

"Bought it from a guy on craigslist. Belonged to his grandmother she was one of your dancing girls. He didn't give me a name. Probably wanted the money to buy Star Wars the extended directors cut with six seconds of extra footage or something" I said offhandedly moving closer to Steve who backed towards the door until we were almost touching

"YOU BETTER NOT BE HAVING SEX IN THERE!" I heard Vivian yell through the door,

"We'll finish this later" I said brushing past Steve and back into the living room

* * *

The body of Famine aka Peter Parker as he was more commonly known was transported back to shield when Vivian had removed all the bullets.

"Good job Winters" Fury praised, standing next to the much taller Loki who smiled warmly at Vivian

"Thank you for today Vivian"

She shrugged her shoulders as she folded her lab coat

"Whatever"

Nick looked amused

"And here I thought you were completely against showing Loki around"

"Somebody ran off to go get her showgirl outfit and I was left with Loki" she frowned, she hadn't hated her time with the frost giant, she'd found someone who appreciated cakes and Jazz just as much as she did so it was nice to not talk about work.

"You should probably buy a winter coat, you looked cold today" Loki advised, since Vivian had walked around in the blustery autumn weather in just a simple blazer.

She shrugged again, Loki noticed that Vivian wasn't looking at him like she had earlier but was glancing gingerly at the doctor who was stood to one side.

"Before I go" Loki strode across to the British arsonist wrapping an arm around her waist, cupping her face with his other hand and pulled her into a kiss. He whispered into her ear when they parted "I was going to ask but it seems that jealously overcame me. I look forward to seeing you again Vivian"

She couldn't look at him; her mind was going into panic mode _'Bruce saw that...it's over'_ Vivian left the apartment in a hurry keeping her flustered face buried into her scarf.

She spent that night on the streets of New York, trawling bars, drinking lavish whiskey and stuffing cherry bombs into the exhausts of police cars for fun and in the vain attempt to forget her one sided love.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Eighteen:**

Vivian opened her eyes to the blinding morning sun and the crystal blue sky, an empty bottle of whiskey in her right hand and a shooting pain in her left. Her head didn't throb has much as she thought it was going to when she woke up, though she would have preferred to have woken up at home not in a randomly alley.

"Vivian! I've been looking everywhere for you" a familiar voice called out to her, Alice rushed over to her still in her star spangled dress "do you know how worried I was?" Steve was at her heels looking equally concerned,

Vivian laughed her throat was dry which made her sound quite husky "you were looking for me in that? Didn't have time to change?" she accepted Steve's hand to get off the floor and stretched her shoulders and back cracked loudly "that's what I get for sleeping on the floor. Best clean up before I head off to shield" she thought aloud,

"Why did you end up in an alley?" Steve asked as they left the narrow passage,

"Too much alcohol, I'd assume"

"What did you do to your hand?" Vivian looked, her left hand including three fingers were clearly burnt with a blister forming around the edges,

"Burnt it I think"

When they reached the apartment Vivian jumped in the shower first, bandaging her hand when she came out, Alice rushed in after her,

"ALICE! Lend me some jeans!" she hollered through the bathroom door

"Why?"

"I've only got one pair and I'm wearing those and their dirty"

"So wear a skirt"

"I've only got one and it's not work practical"

"Go naked then!" Alice retorted,

Steve was sat on the sofa watching the girls argue through a door , '_they're like sisters'_ he thought as Vivian slammed her bedroom door appearing sometime later in a high waist black patterned skirt, white Victorian shirt with frills around the cuffs and Lolita platforms

"This is what I get for being stingy with clothes" she huffed taking root on the sofa opposite Steve,

"But Alice bought enough clothes the other day"

Vivian chuckled "yeah **her** clothes, she spends money on clothes. I spend money on electronics, explosives and expensive whiskey"

"You look pretty"

"Jeans are more comfortable. I don't suit this girly crap" she pouted, they waited for Alice to get ready before they left to Shield together.

"Miss Rose a word please" Fury collared her as she soon as she arrived on the base,

"O dear that can't be good" she followed him to the command room where he showed her several pictures of police cars with the rear end destroyed,

"Can you explain this please?" he asked frowning at her with his good eye,

He knew she was responsible for this mess "car bombs?"

"Do not act coy with me; I know without a doubt you were the one behind this"

She folded her arms crossly "so why did you ask?"

"Not denying it?"

"Why bother? So I won't bother making excuses either. I was plastered, in foul mood and I felt like blowing shit up"

He slammed his hand on the desk loudly, several agents working around them looked over before getting back to work when the director looked round "I'm confiscating all of your explosives and you will be under surveillance. I will send an agent round with you later to clear your home of the explosives you keep"

Vivian frowned and emptied her bag of the copious amounts of flash grenades and cherry bombs she had. "I expect them back" she huffed and walked out towards the canteen to grab coffee before she started work in the med bay.

* * *

While Vivian worked in the med bay I thought I'd find our newest deity and let him know just what I thought of his stunt the previous evening. I found him in the lab bothering Stark,

"You and I need to have some words" I said crossly marching up to the significantly taller frost giant,

"What happened to the dress?" Stark joked

"I am so not in the mood to deal with you today" I shot at him

"So what _are_ you in the mood for?" he said knowing it would only infuriate me more,

"Do you want me to hit you again? Cause I will do it" Stark backed off and got back to whatever it was he was doing,

"So what was it you needed to talk to me about?" Loki asked

"Your stunt in my apartment"

"Ah yes I thought you might be angry about that"

"You're damn right I'm angry! I tell you she likes someone and what do you do? You kiss her in front of everyone!" I seethed

"I was overcome with jealously. I'll admit it's not my best trait but it happens" Loki said,

"So you're not defending your actions?"

"No"

"That makes this a lot easier then. Stay away from her" I said

"Or else what?" Loki asked clearly enjoying the game we were playing

"Or else I'll shoot you with my special horsemen bullets and you really won't like that"

"Is that a threat?"

"She doesn't threaten. She promises. And she always keeps her promises" Stark chimed from the corner of the lab he was working

"I see. Well I guess I'll just have to live in fear of your gun" Loki joked

"Fine have it your way. Go after her. I'm telling you right now you're wasting your time"

"I'll be the judge of that" Loki said

"I'm sure" I turned on my heels and walked out the door to attempt to repair the damage Loki had done, I headed straight for the med bay and found Banner and Vivian working, "Sorry to interrupt but could I borrow the good doctor for a moment" I said sweetly taking Banner by the arm and leading him out into the hallway with me,

"Does your arm hurt?"

"Nah I wrapped it up last night and it's fine. Steve kept checking the bandage for blood every two minutes so I was well looked after. No I wanted to talk to you about yesterday"

"Oh. Don't worry it isn't necessary"

"It is" I said, "Look she's not good with people, machines sure, but people kind of stump her and she really does care about you. That stunt Loki pulled was to make it seem like she'd chosen him over you but she hasn't. Do you know what she did last night after she left the apartment?" Banner shook his head, "She got drunk. Blindingly drunk. She put bombs in the exhausts of police cars. She was upset and when's she's upset she lashes out.

I'll bet she never told you she's a fan of your work. She used to buy all these scientific America magazines whenever they mentioned you just to see what kind of work you were doing. After your accident she looked over all the data she'd collected about the experiment to see if she couldn't find a way to make it work. You were her idol and when she finally got to met you it was like a dream come true. So don't give up on her ok. That's all I have to say. I'll let you get back to work" I left Banner and headed along the corridor to the firing range,

"That was a really nice thing you did" Steve said appearing seemingly out of a wall

"Jesus Harold Christ on rubber crutches don't do that to a person" I said holding my hand to my chest to stay my erratic heart eat,

"Sorry"

"Viv's really the only family I have so I want her to be happy and that stunt Loki pulled was only going to make everything worse and like I said to the Doc people aren't her speciality so it's up to me to smooth these things over"

Steve didn't speak for a moment, "Um do you want to go to my apartment and you can show me what you bought the dress for?"

"Sure. Let's go"

* * *

Vivian hadn't spoke to Bruce about the incident at her apartment and avoided Loki like he had the plague. She kept to herself only talking to nurses when they had quires for her. The virus that had infected Peter Parker was different, a symbiotie creature with great difficulty they had managed to separate it from Parker, storing it in a jar and then in an airtight container. Vivian's main concern now that the man was back to normal was to monitor him; he had been shot with several bullets containing uranium: not that she had told anybody she was already in far too much trouble.

She glanced over at Bruce who was checking the other patients on the other side of the room, when Alice appeared "Sorry to interrupt but could I borrow the good doctor for a moment" she said sweetly taking Banner by the arm and leading him out into the hallway.

Vivian took over Bruce's watch while he was out conversing with Alice. Those infected with the virus from pestilence had improved significantly and if all went well they would be discharged at the weekend. Vivian's hand however was getting slightly worse,

"Do you have any painkillers?" she asked the doctor who was sat at his desk,

"For you I take it?" she nodded holding up her bandaged hand, he gestured for her sit down unravelling the bandages to inspect the wound, "I've seen burns like this when mishandling fireworks" he looked up at her sternly,

"I'm sure you've heard that I handle explosives"

"Can you move your fingers?"

"Wiggling yes actually bending them no it's extremely painful" she tried to bend her fingers but the blisters prevented her.

The fluid in the blisters were removed and her hand was covered in a cooling gel which stung immensely he wrapped a fresh bandage tightly around her hand and issued her some painkillers, "Ah doctor Banner" Vivian titled her head back to find the doctor stood right behind her "you two should take a break, you've been working nonstop since you got here. We'll call you if anything happens" Bruce and Vivian left the infirmary in silence; she kept glancing at him briefly then looking at the floor,

"Alice told me she found you in an alley" Vivian could feel him staring at her intently "do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Probably not the wisest thing I've done for a while" she joked earning another glare from the doctor. The canteen was currently home to two people she really didn't feel like talking to at this moment in time Stark and Loki. And who did she end up sitting next to: Loki, courtesy of Stark who had grabbed Banner to sit next to him.

"Tony was showing me interesting places to visit" Loki acted like nothing had happened, "perhaps you could come with me?" he asked, a slight smug look on his face.

Vivian kept silent trying to ignore his many questions, she was saved by the phone '_Thank you withheld number'_ she thought happily answering the phone with her good hand,

"_VIVIAN!"_

The voice shouted down the phone, the three men stared at her as she held the phone at a distance "First, please don't shout down the phone"

"_Sorry Vivian" _she recognized the voice as her father: the non-adopted father, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, w-"

He cut her off "_I just saw the news and there were loads of bombs and things in New York. That's where you're living right?"_

Vivian couldn't help but smile "seriously, Daddy. I'm fine." no sooner had those words left her mouth, did Tony start heaving with laughter,

"A_re you sure you're okay?"_

"Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry so much."

"_I will talk to you later, I'm about to start my new job" _he said chirpily

"Good luck with it," the phone had been put down and Tony couldn't wait to rag her,

"Daddy? Last time I heard you talk to your old man, you called him father and stood a good four foot away from him" he laughed clutching his sides "when did you become such a daddy's girl?"

"The man you met was my adoptive father. I was talking to my actual father on the phone" she explained eating one of the bagels she had bought,

"You found him? That's great" Loki smiled reaching out to take Vivian's hand but she jerked it away swiftly,

"Found him?" she took a quick sip of coffee to wash the bagel down "I've always known where he was. He was released from prison that's all"

"So being destructive runs in the family does it?" Stark asked,

She shrugged "something like that"

"What about your mother?" Loki questioned softly,

"Don't know, last I heard she was in prison too"

The sirens echoed overheard startling everyone, Avengers were told to assemble, and Death had been spotted just outside of New York.

"Where's Cap?"

"If he's not on the base, he'll be with Alice" Vivian reminded following the team into the command room.

"Stark, Thor and Hawkeye will head to the city find Rodgers and Miss winters while you're at it. Everyone else will remain here to cover." Fury ordered.

"Why must I remain behind?" Loki argued, Thor placed a hand on his brothers shoulder

"Someone needs to stay and protect this place." he leaned closer "you have to protect the ferret too"

"Can I have my explosives back? Just in case" Vivian asked coyly,

Nick turned to the small girl "You won't need them; you're not here to fight. They are"

* * *

I had finally gotten around to showing Steve what I'd bought the dress for when someone almost broke the door down,

"What!" I yelled throwing the door open I was faced with Stark, Thor and Hawkeye and I was wearing nothing but a sheet, "I'm waiting" I said tapping my foot on the ground

"We need your assistance" Thor said,

"So that's why you almost broke the dang door down? Let me get dressed" I said leaving the door open and heading back to Steve's room to put my clothes back on, "Apparently there's something goin on" I said hiking my jeans up

"Did they say what?"

"No they did not. They were too busy staring at the fact that I was wearing nothing but a sheet" Steve paled, "Not the time to worry about me being seen naked" I said pulling my sweater over my head, "So you should probably get dressed" I said lacing up my hunting boots.

Steve dressed quickly in his spangly outfit and we were on our way. We headed straight into the heart of the city where the Cajun man who had come to the SHIELD base was attacking random pedestrians with the help of a man I could only call a mad scientist, "you know I'm not even going to ask" I said loading some flash bang bullets into my gun and getting ready to do whatever needed to be done about the mad scientist and the Cajun man

* * *

Natasha Romanoff was ordered to keep an eye on Vivian who had stormed off from the command room.

"You know it's for your own safety" she said following Vivian,

"I know that. It's just I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen and I don't like being unarmed" Vivian replied entering the lab,

"I know the feeling, what's got you on edge?"

Vivian rummaged around the shelves using a stool for the higher ones "Well why send one horsemen? When two would make a bigger impact if he was going after causing panic."

"And?"

Jumping down with several vials in her hands "Well where's the other horsemen and Apocalypse?" she fitted the vials into several oddly shaped syringes, "these will go through anything including horsemen thick skin" she smiled placing them into a box. "Bruce and I came up with them. I like to be prepared"

The boat rocked furious, Vivian lost her balance and ended up on the floor "you are scary" Natasha laughed helping her off the floor before venturing forth to investigate the situation.

"I have this effect" they reached the deck, Vivian's gut feeling was actually right there was the remaining horseman War, the red hulk hit people out the way like flies. Loki and Bruce joined them on the balcony.

"Vivian you shouldn't be here" Bruce took his glasses off and handed them to Vivian, "Loki stay here with her" Vivian would have objected if the mild mannered man she respected hadn't just grew several feet and turned green, she had never seen him turn before.

"Surprised?" Loki asked looking down at the slightly shocked Vivian,

"Not really" Hulk versus Red Hulk who would win, a lot of people backed up give the giants room to fight. Though as the fight progressed Hulk was being overpowered by War, Vivian grabbed Loki's arm "why are you just standing there do something!" she begged, Loki was hesitant but complied not that he needed to venture into the fray to use his powers, while Loki was preoccupied Vivian grabbed Black widow and melded with the crowd "we need to get him off the carrier or its going to be a floating fireball in no time. I have an idea but we're going to need some help" she turned to the soldiers who were stood there not knowing what to do in the fight. Natasha railed a few of the men, most of them were to follow her into battle, attaching thick wires to the feet of the Red Hulk then attaching them to one of the jets. Two engineers followed Vivian to the small jet, attaching metals hoops for the wires to clip on too. She hoped inside the jet, stealing one of the men's goggles and waited for the others to get into place. "Right this thing can't be too difficult" she mumbled pulling the goggles over her eyes as the wires were clipped into place. "Let's fly" thrusters on and we were rolling. Luckily War was still focusing on Hulk and Loki's attacks to notice one plane trying to leave until it figured that he was attached to jet. In the air and going smoothly, War had been removed with one final Hulk push. Celebrations didn't last long War had climbed the wires and planted himself on the screen taking the top of the plane off with one fell swoop, _eject lever eject lever'_ she chanted mentally, fumbling for the release lever. Not that it was all that useful, War seized her as the chair shot out the plane and in such a war she couldn't even undo the buckles to jump out of the chair. One thing she wasn't great at doing holding her breath underwater. The plane hit the water creating a large flume of water in the air.

* * *

I was having next to no luck subduing the Cajun man. Whatever Apocalypse and the mad scientist had done to him made him stronger than any I'd gone up against,

"This is so not my day" I said to Steve as he pulled me away from some falling debris,

"Maybe you should wait this out somewhere safe" Hawkeye said trying to hit the Cajun man with an explosive arrow

"Not likely" I loaded the last of my armour piercing rounds into my gun and took aim again at the Cajun man who sent some flaming cards my way.

Two things happened after that. The first was that I wasn't able to duck quite in time and the second was that the flaming card caught some of my hair and singed it,

"My hair. You burnt my hair!" I shrieked running towards the Cajun man and using my gymnastic ability and every trick I knew to avoid his attacks.

Once I was close enough I was able to knock him unconscious with the butt of my gun leaving only the mad scientist who really didn't seem to be that much of a threat for the combined forces of Hawkeye, Stark and Steve,

"You know you are one scary chick" Stark said

"I know he's been brainwashed and all but that son bitch burnt my hair!" I said resolutely, "I suppose we should bring him back. If Apocalypse and the other Horseman haven't destroyed everything by now"

When I got back to the Heli Pad Vivian was nowhere in sight,

"She's in the med bay" Natasha said when I found her to ask about Vivian

"What? I thought the people who were infected were doing better"

"They are. She swallowed a lot of water" Natasha explained what had happened with Red Hulk and Doctor Banner and how the Doc had jumped in the water to save her endangering himself and managing to pull her out of the water and back on the Heli Pad and take her to the nurses before passing out,

"Where is he now?"

"In the med bay keeping tabs on her" Natasha said

"I'm going to see if she's ok" I said rushing to the med bay where I met Banner

"She's unconscious for now but I expect her to wake soon" Banner said without looking at me

"You'll find me when she does?"

"Of course" he said still not taking his eyes off Vivian

I left the med bay and let Steve take me home where I wanted anxiously for a call about Vivian for better or worse


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Nineteen:**

Even underwater red hulk refused to let go of the chair which stopped her from accessing the buckles of the chair, to make matters worse the weight of red hulk and the plane made them descend faster and Vivian was starting to panic. The horseman squeezed her and the chair tightly; she couldn't hold it anymore air escaped her mouth allowing the water to rush in.

Vivian found herself sat on a stool in a small cosy bar a dainty woman sat at the piano on the stage. The woman smiled at her as she played a song Vivian knew well 'someday my prince will come' by Bill Evans. She rested her head on the worn mahogany bar and her eyes slowly started to close. The music seemed so distant a warm hand stroked her hair; the woman was leaning on the counter too and smiled warmly

"You're still much too young, my little angel"

"Mum, I missed you"

"Someone has to make sure your father doesn't do something stupid"

"I inherited that from him" the music faded till it was nothing more than a distant memory.

The bright white ceiling stared down at her, half of Vivian had really wanted to stay in that bar with her mother, tears flowed down her face moving a hand to wipe them away, alerted someone that she was awake,

"Vivian, thank god" Bruce squeezed her hand tightly

"..." she tried to speak but her voice was sore after some coughs she managed to muster the words "not words I expected from a man of science" she joked.

"I need to call Alice she was worried sick"

Vivian slowly and painfully propped herself up with the pillows, her lungs felt sore like someone had attacked them with sandpaper. Bruce sat back down beside her; he looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.

"What happened to war?" she asked,

"Currently sedated in that glass cage, he has assumed his original form"

Vivian nodded as he spoke

"How did I get here?" she finally decided to ask before Bruce could answer Alice burst through the door and practically jumped on her issuing more pain to her chest

"You're alive! Don't go dying on me yet"

"I'm too young to die" she laughed her throat still very horse which made Alice chuckle. Vivian still felt forlorn, not walking up to her friends and accepting death would have let her stay where she had felt safest, in the house she grew up in with her mother. No pain and certainly no crazy aliens trying to take her face off.

* * *

Vivian was allowed to leave the med bay when both Banner and the resident Doc said she was ok. She was under orders, once again, to go home and stay there until Banner said she was allowed to go back to work again,

"I don't like this" Vivian sulked, "I don't even have anything to do!" Maria Hill had come around earlier that day and taken all Vivian's explosives plus anything that Fury thought could be used to make said explosives,

"Yes well the last time you were put on bed rest you decided to make bullets with Lycodium powder" Banner said

"Which proved ultimately useful" Vivian countered

"What's lycodium powder?" Steve asked

"It's what makes my flash bang bullets go flash and then bang" I explained touching the singed ends of my hair self consciously I'd been keeping it up in a ponytail since the Cajun man now known as Remy had burnt it with his flaming cards.

When he'd come around after being un brainwashed he apologised profusely and was extremely nice to the point where Steve took it upon himself to step in and make it very well known that he and I were in fact dating,

"Basically yeah" Vivian said, "I'm craving Chinese food. Do we have take out menus anywhere?"

"We should" I rose from the couch and started checking cupboards, "Looks like no I'll just go get some. You stay here and Doc you stay with her. Steve you're coming with me" I put my .44 in my pocket and headed out the door with Steve,

"How come you don't have a takeout menu?" Steve asked, "I mean they keep putting them on the door my apartment"

"I have loads" I responded, "Thai food, Chinese Food, Mexican, Chicken. Those two just need to be alone for a while" Steve laughed and took my hand in his something I wasn't exactly used to,

"You talk tough but you're really a big romantic at heart" he said

"You'd think so but no" I laughed, "I mean I went and bought that dress just to embarrass the life out of you" we headed down the alley I'd taken as a shortcut the last time I went to get Chinese and the same two tweakers were standing around and as soon as they saw me they ran so fast I almost expected there to be little dust outlines,

"Even _if_ that's true you still went and found the dress. And you wear my dog tags and you dumped Thor in front of everyone"

"That proves nothing"

"It does. Why are you so afraid to be intimate with someone? I thought we had this figured out"

"Well apparently not. Look I'm really messed up ok? My mother used me as a social tool for her own betterment. My father the only man I ever could have loved if the feeling actually occurred in the black hole in my chest that some call my heart treated me like a son and what was I supposed to do say 'No dad girls aren't supposed to shoot or fish or hunt' because those skills are invaluable to me now. All I wanted was to be able to live my life the way I wanted to and I didn't get that so I learned that life is tough and you don't always get what you want and that love is just something you tell children a fairy tale. Soul Mates and One True Love it's all bullshit" I said taking my hand out of Steve's

"I have to believe that it's not" Steve said, "It's an old fashioned notion sure but I'm an old fashioned guy"

"You know what maybe this was a bad idea" I said taking Steve's dog tags from around my neck,

"No! You can't give up just because you're scared!" Steve yelled

"I might be scared but it's gotten me this far and it's kept me safe" I yelled back

"Staying alive isn't living" Steve said, "You've never lived a day in your life have you?"

"I've been safe" I said, "I've never been hurt"

"Maybe you need to be. You need to have your heart broken at least once"

"This is about her isn't it? Agent Peggy Carter am I right?"

"How do you know about Peggy?"

"I told you didn't I? I took a look at your record and more. Howard Stark recorded on his file that you and she were a thing"

"I loved her yes. But she lived her life, she got married and had children and grandchildren and she made great memories" Steve said, "What kind of memories have you? A string of random encounters with men that never last"

"What the hell does it matter to you?" I screamed

"It matters because I care about you" he said

"But why? I mean you said it I'm a mess why the hell would you care about me? You deserve a nice normal well adjusted girl not me and my truck load of emotional baggage"

"It's because you're a mess that I care about you. If you were a 'nice normal, well adjusted girl' then you wouldn't be here and I would never have met you" Steve said taking my hand in his again,

"So Chinese food" I said changing the subject completely but tightening the grip on Steve's hand, "Anything in particular you want?" Steve smiled and held me closer to him as we walked out of the alley and into the late evening sun

* * *

Several minutes passed in awkward silence in the apartment, "Coffee?" she asked breaking the awful silence.

"If you're having one"

Vivian ventured into the kitchen, flicking the kettle on, opening the draw to get a spoon she found several takeout menus stuffed in there too '_I'll kill her one of these days'_ she grabbed two cups and the milk out of the tiny fridge,

"How do you have your coffee?" she hollered,

"You don't need to shout I'm right here" Bruce had crept up behind her making Vivian almost drop the cups,

"Don't do that" she frowned, placing the cups on the counter "Coffee how do have it?" she repeated taking a side step away from him,

"Black no sugar" he replied, noticing Vivian's nervousness around him "are you afraid of me?"

Vivian turned to him with a confused yet angry look on her face "Afraid of you? Don't be soft" she handed him his coffee "do you expect me to scared because everyone else seems to be?" she asked with a raised brow,

"I just assumed-"

"Never assume," she advised sipping her own hot beverage and slipped past him "I'm only scared of one person and that's Angry Alice" she stated taking root on the sofa again, her back against the arm instead of the actual back of the sofa,

"Angry Alice?" Bruce joined her in the living area, sitting on the other end of the sofa,

"You've probably seen her mad not angry. I made her angry once when I switched her moisturiser with cheap fake tan. So she went orange and it was streaky. Ah I vowed never again to make her angry, she almost killed me which wouldn't be a first" Vivian laughed, placing her cup on the coffee table.

"The first time being when she met you"

Vivian nodded "That's right. She was the hitman and I was the target. An expensive target or so she told me"

Bruce seemed bewildered by Alice and Vivian's odd relationship, "why were you a target?"

"I'd finally pissed the wrong person off. The leader of a biker gang I used to run with, I swindled him out of a lot of money and took off and Alice was hired to kill me and retrieve the cash. And that is how our beautiful friendship came to be"

The doctor placed his empty cup on the coffee table, leaning back to look at Vivian "I do have a proposition, if you don't find it intrusive" Vivian stretched out her legs which had started to cramp her feet didn't reach Bruce since it was a rather large sofa "You told Loki you didn't know where your mother was, I was thinking we could probably track her down after this is over"

Vivian probably had the most ridiculous grin on her face "I appreciate the sentiment but I did tell Loki a slight lie. I sort of kind of know where she is." her smile did diminish on that note "I knew what prison she was in and she died shortly after being admitted there. She committed suicide. After that I don't know where she was buried" Vivian closed her eyes as she leant against the back of the sofa but quickly reopened them when she felt herself being moved, into the arms of Doctor Banner. Neither of them said anything for the first few seconds, she sat accepting the hug but moved into a more comfortable position straddling him, her hands on his chest,

"I'm sorry. I never thanked you for saving my life" she mumbled "Natasha told me"

"I certainly wasn't going to let you drown" she raised her head to look at him; Bruce always looked at her full of concern, which was rare. He didn't treat her like some crazy arsonist. Even though she really was most of the time. The doctor leant forward and kissed her tenderly on the forehead, even that simple act made her heart race.

"T-that's not fair" she pouted, responding with a more intimate kiss. Banner tightened his arms around her waist as if she would fly away if he didn't keep hold of her,

"That was unexpected" Vivian reburied her head into his chest listening to beat of his heart "I'm no good with people" she huffed,

"I know Alice told me" he whispered, breathing down her neck making her shiver "she also told me you collected articles on my work"

Vivian pushed back suddenly mortified "O Christ did she?" Bruce nodded "What else did she tell you?" she asked suspiciously,

"That I was your idol"

"O dear god, wait till I get my hands on her"

"Worry about that later" he breathed down her neck again pulling her back in for another deep kiss.

* * *

When Steve and I got back with the food Vivian and Bruce were sitting on the couch cuddling,

"I return with food" I announced

"That you really could have ordered" Vivian said poking her head up over the back of the couch

"Yes I could have but aren't you glad I didn't" I said opening the various boxes we'd been given plus the six pack I'd gotten on my way back

"Yeah I guess I am" Vivian said sitting back down with Bruce's arms around her, "Although you and I need to have a word about what you tell people" she scowled at me

"If it makes you feel better you can anyone anything about me you like" I said digging into a box of noodles

"Well I did tell Bruce about the time I swapped out your moisturiser for that cheap fake tan"

"It didn't come off for three days. So I had this orange streaky face for three days and I couldn't do anything about it"

The four of us sat in silence for a while and it gave me time to think about how strange our situation was. Vivian and I always maintained a distance with the opposite sex, if and when we did have dealings with them it was for business only and should that business leak into pleasure then it was wham, bam, thank you ma'am but here we were cuddled up to respective other halves drinking beer and eating Chinese food,

"What are you thinking about?" Steve asked

"How bizarre this all is to me"

"Me too" Vivian said

"How is it bizarre?" Bruce asked and I explained to him, "Well you can't be alone forever" he said,

"Says you" Vivian laughed

"I isolated myself for a reason" Bruce said, "I didn't want to hurt anyone"

"And we didn't want to _get_ hurt" I said simply taking a long drink out of my beer

"You can't live your life without experiencing those kinds of things" Bruce said

"It's ok Doc. We've already had this discussion twice" I said tapping Steve on the chest, "We've pretty much got it covered"

The four of us had a quiet evening that night. We ate Chinese food, drank beer, found out that Steve can't get drunk so made him play as many drinking games as Vivian and I could think of, Bruce said he wouldn't stay the night and Vivian seemed fine with that so they had a cute kiss goodbye at the door which ended in her scowling at me when I 'awed' too loudly. Finally after making Steve play some more drinking games she headed to bed and warned me not to be too loud when I 'traumatised' Steve,

"I should cleanup" I said stretching my arms above my head,

"I'll help" Steve said gathering up boxes into a bin bag while I gathered up bottles to put in the recycling bin,

"I'm kind of tired" I said rubbing my stomach, "I think all that food made me sleepy"

"I'll go home then" Steve said,

"Nah you can stay just don't get too cuddly" I warned,

"I'll try" Steve laughed and for the first time in my life I went to sleep that night while someone spooned me.

Of course that kind of peace can only last for so long and when it breaks it brings hell with it.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty:**

Early hours of the morning rang the bell of the apocalypse. The whole complex shook violently; Vivian leapt from her bed and heard Steve shout 'Earthquake'

"Don't be an idiot" she said leaning on her doorframe her tablet in hand "it's an explosion. The vibrations are completely different"

"How can you be sure?" he asked,

"You're asking the arsonist? I've set off enough large scale explosives to feel the difference" she stared down at her screen "I have a feeling our alien guest is slightly pissed off and we might want to suit up. Fighting in pj's isn't exactly wise or fashionable"

"Like you're one to talk" Alice mocked,

"My existence is fashionable enough" Vivian laughed.

Heading down the stair fully clothed, Vivian made a pit stop in the landlady's personal garage, "Vivian what the hell are you doing?" the British girl appeared moments later with small satchel "what's in there?"

Vivian had a fox like grin as she walked past Steve "what do you think?"

"I thought Fury confiscated them"

"I accidentally forgot to mention the ones stashed in my bike"

The trio followed the sounds of screaming and explosions. "We need to get civilians evacuated" Steve ordered,

"I'll leave that to you two then" Vivian grinned darting off between cars that had been left in the middle of the road "I'll be the distraction"

"Hey!" Steve shouted

"People take orders better from people in...Uniform" she laughed creeping behind the cars so Apocalypse didn't see her coming. She pried open a petrol cap on a car inserting a screwed up piece of cloth and lit it with her Zippo before diving behind another car as the flame met petrol "Well I hope that caused a nice distraction"

"Foolish mortal, you know you cannot win against the great APOCALYPSE!" the alien was stood on top of the car she was hiding behind

"Well I certainly can't" she retorted letting off a flash grenade and moved to another hiding spot this time under a truck. '_I'm going to need something with a bit more bang'_ she hummed looking around she found Vivian found a burst of inspiration, a broken exhaust pipe and a hand full of nails and glass. Capping one end with a rock and duck tape: which she keeps on hand always. She filled the pipe with nails and glass before adding far too much explosive capping the top with another rock and more duck tape. She crawled from under the truck and looked around for the enemy

"So the mouse comes out of hiding"

Lighting the fuse she turned and threw it at the alien, the fuse was burning much quicker than she thought '_wrong fuse'_ Vivian spun around and ran towards another car. Alice and Steve were on their way after clearing the "PIPE BOMB!" she warned as the bomb exploded. Vivian was seconds too slow diving behind a car, pieces of shrapnel caught her in the shoulder and side. "Son of a-" she cursed clutching her side. Her hiding place once again found this time with force the car was overturned by thick metal wires which latched onto her waist whisking her off into the air

"Vivian what the hell are you doing?" Alice shouted

"Being a decoy!" Vivian replied flashing a thumbs up "It's working" the wire tightened around her waist pressing the shrapnel further into her side "yup that's a nail" she groaned.

"Don't move!" Steve hollered throwing his shield like a Frisbee

"I'm not going anywhere" she covered her head with her free arm as the shield whizzed past her face but Apocalypse batted the shield away like a toy.

A more effective attack came from a blast from Ironman followed by Thor sending a huge bolt of lightning through Apocalypse which in avertedly raced through Vivian since she was still connected to the alien, she couldn't help but scream in pain.

"More fools wish to defy me" new more challenging opponents arrived, so Vivian was thrown away like a rag doll.

Vivian braced for a painful landing on the tarmac but it never came,

"Vivian, are you okay?" Loki had caught her bridal style in mid-air, she gave a thumbs up

"I've been better" she crocked "where's Hawkeye?" Loki carried her over to the master sniper, she pulled a small gun that resembled a dart gun but a little bigger, and inserted a translucent bullet with a silver liquid in it. She passed the gun to the assassin "Make sure you aim for his neck. And don't drop it...its pretty toxic to humans" Vivian warned,

Barton accepted the gun and added it to his repertoire of weapons "thanks. Leave it to me" he smiled, Loki picked Vivian up again even though she tried to struggle and carried her somewhere safe,

"I'll be fine" she sighed, reaching into her wound to pull out one of the nails that was irritating her the most, "good god, that feckin' hurts" she growled "good catch by the way"

"I won't leave your side. Not after what happened last time" Loki said.

* * *

After Loki grabbed Vivian I figured he wasn't about to let her go so we would need a new decoy if the others were going to get rid of Apocalypse,

"Give me a boost will you?" I said to Steve,

"What are you planning?" he asked clearly worried about what I was about to do

"Plan? Who says I have a plan" I laughed running at Steve who boosted me up with his shield and sent me soaring through the air for one glorious moment before Stark caught me,

"What are you thinking?" he yelled

"I have no idea, drop me on his back will you?"

"You got it" Stark dropped me square in the middle of Apocalypse's back and I loaded my .44 with the last of my armour piercing rounds and sent them point blank into any soft spot I could find,

"INSECT YOU DARE CHALLENGE THE MIGHTY APOCALYPSE!" Apocalypse yelled trying to reach around to throw me off thankfully he couldn't reach his back either so I was safe or at least I thought I was.

Apocalypse suddenly grew to the size of the empire state building and with nothing to hold on to I went hurting towards the ground rather fast. My fall was broken thank god by Dr Banner or Hulk as he was currently who set me down on the ground after catching me,

"Thanks" I said getting a grunt in return,

"What were you thinking?" Steve asked running over to me, "You could have been seriously hurt"

"Well I wasn't was I?" I said, "Damn I'm all out of armour piercing rounds" I started fishing in my bag for anything else I could use and came across some blanks, some normal rounds and some flash bang rounds, "Better than nothing" so I loaded up my gun with the ammo I had left and did my best to distract Apocalypse in order to let the others at him,

"YOU ARE A PUNY MORTAL AND YOU DO NOTHING BUT ANGER ME!" Apocalypse yelled sending me crashing into a cab with one sweep of his hand,

"Ow" I groaned picking myself out of the cab, I noticed my side was bleeding badly and saw that the driver's side window had smashed with the impact of me hitting it and most of said glass was in my side, head and arms, "This is gonna mean stitches" I groaned, "Fuck" picking myself up anyway I noticed Clint fire one single bullet into Apocalypse's neck,

"YOU THINK ONE BULLET WILL DEFEAT ME!" Apocalypse yelled still lording it over everyone, or at least he was until he suddenly shrank down to human size and toppled over,

"Well that was anti climatic" I said hobbling over to Steve and the others looked like I'd broken my foot as well when I slammed into the cab,

"Yeah well let me just check" Vivian picked up a stick that had fallen on the ground and poked Apocalypse a few times,

"Yeah he's dead" Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief

"So what do we do with him now?" I asked

"We call Fury and he deals with it" Stark said,

"Good because I really don't think any of us could lug him all the way back to the super secret heli pad" I said leaning on Steve, "Let's just leave him there for a while yeah? I'm starving. I didn't get to eat this morning"

"There's a shwarma joint about a block away" Stark said, "Let's get shwarma"

"Sure why not. I have no idea what it is but anything sounds good right about now"

"I second that motion" Vivian said, "We just have to find Bruce first"

* * *

They managed to find Bruce who was back to his usual size and clothed, he found clothes somewhere,

"Hey Bruce we're off for shwarma" Tony announced he joined the group,

"Same place you found last time?" he asked,

"You bet"

Steve insisted on carrying Alice since she'd broken her foot. Vivian was walking down the street with her shirt half hitched up digging pieces of glass and nails out of her side with her fingers.

"Are you sure you should do that walking?" Loki asked instep with Vivian,

"probably not" she felt around assuming she'd removed the shards, "hold this" Vivian said passing Loki her bag taking out a roll of duck tape before taking her shirt off in the middle of the empty street and passed it to the stunned god who was staring at her keenly,

"Whoa what did I miss?" Tony had noticed they hadn't been keeping up and turned round to see Vivian topless, which then made everyone else turn round though Steve quickly averted his eyes

"What?" she shook her head and placed the non-sticky side against her wounded wrapping that a few times tightly then twisting it to wrap the sticky sides together "There we go, all fixed" Vivian reached out and grabbed her shirt and bag back and carried on walking "stop staring"

"We expect it from Alice not you" Natasha laughed,

"Why did you use duck tape?" Barton questioned, normal people usually use bandages when they're injured and duck tape for fixing everything else,

Vivian shrugged "ran out of bandages and as they say if you can't duck it fuck it" she quoted

"That usually applies to appliances and wires" Tony remarked as they carried on walking after Vivian's brief exhibition

"Meh duck tape is for everything"

"Including makeshift handcuffs" Alice chimed in from her spot on Steve's back since he insisted on carrying her piggy back style

They entered the shwarma joint and sat down earning several bizarre looks from the people that worked there. What a sight they were, two bizarrely dressed men, a guy in a metal suit, the rest of them battered and bruised all huddled round eating shwarma, all laughing and joking about the destruction outside.

* * *

Fury's team cleaned up the city in record time and Apocalypse's body was brought on to the heli pad and dragged to a secret room somewhere no one knew about and even when I went sluthing to try and find said room I got blocked by Maria Hill insisting I go to the med bay for stitches and to have my foot looked at,

"I'm fine honestly" I said, "I want to know what's happening with our not so jolly and not so green Giant" I said trying to get past her

"I really think you should at least have your foot looked at" my foot was currently swollen and turning a rather alarming shade of purple

"Fine" I hobbled off towards the med bay where Vivian was currently sitting on a bed while Bruce pulled the nails out of her side,

"Hey did you find any - ow - thing?"

"Nope got cock blocked by Maria Hill" I said hopping up on a bed and grabbing an ice pack for my foot

"Shouldn't you get that looked at?" Bruce said looking at my purple foot

"I put some ice on it the swelling goes down the bones knit back together"

"Only anatomy doesn't work like that. You'll need a cast and stitches for your wounds. And the glass taken out of them" Bruce said

"Remember our last incident with needles? I got tazered and almost tried to swing a chair at Viv" I said

"I have a plan" Vivian called over one of the nurses and whispered something in her ear. The nurse nodded and left returning moments later with Steve, "We need your help" Vivian said

"Sure"

"Take your shirt off" Vivian said as Bruce bandaged up her side, "she needs stitches and we all remember the last time"

"You don't have to take off your shirt" I said just don't let me see the needle" I said. So Steve held my hand and didn't let me see any needles and I was able to get my stitches and cast without anyone getting hurt.

It was at least a week later when Fury called us all in again,

"We're getting rid of Apocalypse once and for all" Fury said

"What are you going to do with him?" I asked trying to scratch my foot with a pen I'd found sitting on the desk. The damn cast was itchy as all hell

"We've built a container and we're going to drop him in the Marina Trench" Fury said

"What did you make the container out of?" Vivan asked

"A metal called adamantium" Fury said and Steve opened his mouth but I stamped my foot down on his and he quickly silenced, though I'm sure Fury knew Vivian had gotten her hands on the metal to make my vest and bullets,

"So what are we waiting for?" Stark asked, "Let's drop this bastard in the ocean and forget all about him"

Fury started giving commands and soon we were in the air. It took about an hour to get to the Marina Trench and we were all invited up on deck when we'd landed, Steve insisted on carrying me since I was still a little unsteady on my crutches and we all watched as a large metal container was hoisted into the air and dropped into the deepest part of the trench.

Unfortunately for me there happened to be splash back from the container hitting the water and soaking the blouse I'd bought the previous day to make up for the clothes I'd ripped fighting Apocalypse on the streats,

"DAMN IT THIS BLOUSE COST TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!" I yelled

"What the hell did you spend that kind of money on a blouse for?" Vivian asked

"It's Vivenne Westwood!" I answered

"Oh well that justfies it" Vivian nodded her head while the boys just looked at me in confusion

"You guys have a lot to learn about women"

"And are you gonna stick around to teach us?" Steve asked

I looked over at Bruce, who had his arms around Vivian,

"Yeah I think I will"


End file.
